


Gays in Space

by Jacksonofabitch



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: But mostly fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gay Keith, Klance Positivity Month 2017, M/M, Slow Burn, Some angst, and SMUT, bi lance, klance, right after season 2, shiro will probs show up at some point, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-07 23:50:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 39,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11069646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jacksonofabitch/pseuds/Jacksonofabitch
Summary: Following Shiro's disappearance, Keith realizes that he needs Lance. And Lance realizes that just maybe he needs Keith too.Klance Positivity Month 2017This event lasts through the 1st of June until the 30th. Each five days marks a new prompt.Week 1 (1st-5th): FirstsWeek 2 (6th-10th): RelianceWeek 3 (11th-15th): Free DayWeek 4 (16th-20th): EmpowermentWeek 5 (21st-25th): VictoryWeek 6 (26th-30th): Life After Voltron





	1. First Day Without Shiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first day Team Voltron is without Shiro

“Yo, dude,” Lance said, collapsing onto the couch next to Keith, “you gotta try this.”

Keith scowled at the bottle the blue paladin offered him. “What is it?”

“Just drink it.”

With a sigh, he took the bottle, sniffing at the liquid inside. It smelled sweet and somewhat flowery, but not overbearing. Lance watched him eagerly as he took a sip. The taste was something close to soda back on earth, but less sugary and without the fizz. “Now will you tell me what it is?”

Lance pouted. “You barely drank any.”

“Fine.” He took a larger swig, grimacing when it burned a bit going down. That hadn’t happened last time. “What the hell is this?”

The Cuban boy sighed, laying flat on the couch with his head resting next to Keith’s legs. “I think it’s some kind of space alcohol.” Now that Keith looked closer, Lance’s cheeks were flushed and his smile was dopier than usual. “It’s pretty great, right?”

“Where did you get it?”

“A planet we visited to a while back. I’ve been saving it for a while. I figured now is a pretty good time.”

“Yeah.” Keith took another large swig, forcing his thoughts away from the empty chair in the Black Lion’s cockpit. “Now’s a _great_ time.” He drank again, ignoring how bitter the liquid had become.

Lance stared up at him. “Don’t drink too much. This stuff is pretty strong.”

The red paladin shrugged. “I don’t feel any different.”

“Yeah, neither did I after the first few minutes. Just wait.” Lance sighed, eyes closing. “It’s some good shit though. If I ever remember what the planet’s called we should go back and get some more.”

Keith looked at the small bottle in his hand. It was already half empty. “Are we going to become space alcoholics then?” A wave a pure warmth rose out of his stomach, spreading through his limbs and making his head feel fuzzy. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah, it’s great.” Lance sat up and scooting close enough so their legs were pressed against each other. “How’re you feeling?”

“Don’t.”

“Okay.” Lance let his head fall on to Keith’s shoulder. “What’s your favorite color?”

“What?”

Lance took the bottle back and took a sip. “Your favorite color. I never thought to ask before.”

The shorter teen shrugged, earning an annoyed sound from Lance. “I don’t have one.”

“Sure you do. Everyone does.” The brunet straightened so he could look at Keith directly. “If you had to pick a color, what would it be?”

“I don’t know. Why’re you asking?” Keith sighed when Lance only continued to stare at him. “White. I like white.”

“That’s really boring.” Lance laughed. “Wow, Keith.”

Keith glared at him, shoving him off the couch. “You’re the one who asked.”

“Be careful!” Lance cried. Some of the alcohol had spilled over onto his hand but he managed to save most of it. “This is all I have. And here I was being nice and sharing with you.” He pouted up at Keith, raising his wet hand to lick it off his fingers.

The raven haired boy looked down at his hands. “Sorry. Here,” he offered Lance a hand up. Instead of letting himself be pulled up, Lance jerked him off the couch so he tumbled onto the other paladin. “Lance,” he said, giggling before he could stop it. He slapped a hand over his mouth instantly, but continued to giggle anyways. The bottle of space alcohol glimmered in the lighting from where it sat on the floor.

“Oh, my god, you can laugh.” Lance tried to pull Keith’s hand away, but the other resisted, still trying to stop himself from laughing. They rolled around on the floor, laughing and struggling. After a few minutes, Lance gave up, sprawling on the floor, staring up at the ceiling, panting. Keith laid beside him, finally done laughing. “So you can laugh and you’re favorite color is white. Learning lots of things about you tonight, Keithy boy.”

Keith rolled onto his side, propping up his head to look at Lance. “What about you? What’s your favorite color?”

“Blue. This deep blue that holds all the world’s secrets and all the warmth of the sun.” Lance’s eyes fall closed, imagining it.

The red paladin studied his face. For the first time, he could properly appreciate the flawless, tan skin, the high cheekbones, the long, dark lashes. Lance really was handsome, when he wasn’t being ass out of himself. “What are you thinking about?”

“My mom’s eyes.” He sounded as alone as Keith felt since yesterday. Reaching over, Keith took Lance’s hand in his, squeezing it tightly. The blue paladin looked at him, their eyes meeting, and it was like they could both tell exactly what the other was thinking. “We’re going to get Shiro back, Keith. And then we’re all going to go home.”


	2. First Time Sleeping Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first time Keith and Lance slept together
> 
> Note: They just sleep

Lance was debating which facemask he should use later that night after he’d shared the space alcohol with Keith. They had gone their separate ways shortly after Lance had promised they’d get Shiro back. The talk had gone better than he’d thought. He’d imagined there’d be shouting and throwing things, but Keith was a lot calmer than expected, if more sulky and antisocial than usual. Then again, Keith had lost Shiro before and found him again. Maybe he was getting used to it.

The blue paladin shook his head at the thought, reaching for the lavender-like smelling one that always brought him nice dreams. He would probably need it tonight, considering how little he’d slept last night. Before he could do more than open the container however, there was a knock on the door. Lance peeked out of his bathroom, calling, “Come in!”

He expected it to be Hunk wanting to talk, or maybe Coran checking to see if he was doing okay. He was not expecting Keith, cheeks still pink from the alcohol, to open the door. “Um, h-hey.”

“Hey.” Lance tilted his head to the side, waiting to see what Keith wanted. When the raven-haired teen didn’t continue, he asked, “Need something? Want more space alcohol? It kinda wears off fast, but if you have more now, you’ll get _really_ affected.”

Keith shook his head. “I don’t want the alcohol. I just- I was wondering- I didn’t-”

The behavior suddenly became all too familiar to Lance, the red paladin suddenly reminding him of how his younger brother acted when he’d had a nightmare and was too shy to outright ask if he could stay with Lance. He smiled, wishing that a nightmare was the extent to Keith’s problem, to all the all their problems. “You want to a hang in here for a bit? I was just about to put on my face mask.”

“Face mask?” Keith repeated, nose crinkling. “Why?”

“Because this level of beauty isn’t flawless, Mullet.” He flashed him his signature smile, which increased the look of disgust on Keith’s face. “It just feels kinda nice. With all the shit that we’ve been through, I like to do something normal and pamper-y.”

Keith followed the boy to the bathroom, leaning against the door frame to watch. “I don’t think ‘pamper-y’ is a word.” Lance chose to ignore him in favor of preparing his face for the mask. “Where did you get these anyways?”

“I found them in a storage room.” Normally, Lance hated being watched while doing his skincare routine, but Keith’s company was kind of… nice. “Coran told me what they were and since there were quite a few, I took a couple. They’re really good, better than the ones I had back on Earth.”

By the time Lance had finished spreading the pale purple goop all over his face, Keith had wandered closer and was looking at the various jars on the shelf. “Did you translate the writing?” He’d noticed the handwritten notes attached to each of them.

Lance shook his head. “No, I tried them out and wrote down what effects they had on me and what sort of scent they had. Oh, you might want to check out the one on the bottom shelf, far left.”

Keith lifted the small tan container, squinting at Lance’s messy handwriting. “Bruise cream?”

“Yeah. I tripped one night and had this nasty bruise on my face, but lucky for me this was the one I tried that night and it was gone by morning. It didn’t do anything for the rest of my face though, so I’ve just been saving it in case. I haven’t been able to find any more of it on the ship or on any of the planets yet, or else I would’ve given everyone a jar.” Lance smiled at Keith. “You can have that one.”

The red paladin stared at him and then down at the jar. “Are you sure? If it’s the only jar...”

Lance waved off the protest with a hand. “It’s not like I’m actually using it for anything. Besides, you’re the one that goes all hardcore on the training deck. You need it way more than I do.”

“Are you sure?”

 _“Yes,_ Keith,” Lance said, chuckling. “Just do you know, you don’t have to use a whole lot, so it should last for a while. Hopefully, Coran and I can find some before you run out.”

“Thank you.” The Cuban boy paused what he was doing to turn and stare at the other. There had been something very genuine and _vulnerable_ in the Keith’s voice, something that Lance hadn’t even been sure was capable of feeling. “It’s a good gift,” he mumbled when he noticed the other staring. The redness of his face couldn’t be blamed on the alcohol any more.

Lance swallowed, turning away with a shrug. “It only makes sense to give it to you. Just actually try to _not_ get hurt. You have to have some sort of survival instinct, right?” Keith shrugged, still looking at the jar. “Wow, thanks. I feel so assured.”

Keith rolled his eyes, ignoring the sarcasm. “So, um, are you going to sleep, now?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.” The red paladin cleared his throat, posture going awkward again. “Well, then, have a good night.”

The door had opened by the time Lance gave in, silently curing Keith for not being to just _ask._ “Hey, Keith. Do you want to stay here tonight?”

Turning back around, the Korean teen stared at him, mouth gaping. Lance couldn’t tell what was going through the other’s head and for a heart-stopping minute, he worried that he’d guess Keith’s purpose wrong and had overstepped a boundary. Then Keith closed his mouth and nodded slowly. He moved back into the room warily, watching Lance like he thought the blue paladin was going to kick him out.

Lance figured Keith didn’t have a whole lot of experience dealing with people, so he’d forgive Keith’s awkward shyness for now, even though they’d been on the ship together for _ages._ Surely Keith at least trusted him a little by now? “Do you want to sleep next to the wall, or do you want me to?” he asked, ignoring the tension that had built up.

“What?”

“To sleep, Keith. Which side of the bed do you want? I’m okay with either.”

Keith stared at him, blinking rapidly as his face once again began to turn red. “I- I was just going to, uh, sleep on the floor.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Why? It’ll get cold and uncomfortable and there’s plenty of room on the bed.”

“But sleeping with someone else, isn’t that,” he cast about for the right word, “weird?”

The taller shrugged. “I shared the bed all the time back home with my siblings. And when I first got to the Garrison, I’d sleep cuddled up with Hunk because I was homesick.” He pulled out Pidge’s headphones and his music player, vaguely thinking about what he wanted to listen to. “If you’re not okay with it, that’s fine, but the bed would be more comfortable.”

“You really don’t mind?” Keith was looking at him with a bit of wonder in his eyes, like allowing someone else to sleep in the same bed was something amazing.

“Nah, my dude. Just let me know which side you want.”

Keith stayed quiet for a moment and Lance wondered if he would just end up sleeping on the floor anyways. The red paladin was odd like that. Then, in a quiet voice, he heard Keith say, “the outer side. Please.”

Lance beamed at him. “Great, then you get the lights.” He snuggled under the covers, keeping close to the wall so Keith had plenty of space. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Keith heading for the light switch, but he kept his focus on choosing the right song. With the headphones placed securely over his ears, Lance couldn’t hear Keith approach and instead felt the bed dip and then there was a warm presence laying next to him.

A hand reached over to touch his arm. Lance lifted one of the headphones away from his ear. “Yeah, Mullet?”

“Thanks. For letting me stay here.”

“No probs, Keith. We’re a team, remember? We have to be there for each other.”

“Yeah.” Keith rolled over, back facing Lance.

The blue paladin let the headphone fall back into place and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep.

~

The next morning was quiet. There were no sirens blaring or emergency drills they had to perform. The castle had become dead silent in Shiro’s absence. While Lance appreciated not having to train and being able to sleep in, he’d do anything to hear one of Shiro’s sappy inspiration speeches again.

For a while, the Cuban teen just laid in bed, staring at the ceiling while music played softly in his ears. It was only when he decided to get up that he remembered that he hadn’t been alone when he’d gone to sleep. During the night, Keith had moved over and was currently using his chest as a pillow. Their legs were tangled together and somehow Lance had wrapped his arms around the other. Overall, it was a fairly compromising position to be in.

 He wanted to move Keith off him, but he also didn’t want to risk waking the other up. If Lance didn’t just die from embarrassment immediately, then surely Keith would kill him to protect his masculinity or something. _Maybe I can just kind of slide out from under him?_ He thought.

Carefully, Lance started to move, paying close attention to Keith’s breathing pattern. Rather than waking up however, Keith _clung_ to him, a whine sounding in the back of his throat as he snuggled closer. When he tried to move again, the red paladin moved even farther on top of Lance, determined to keep the other right where he was.

 _Keith would die if he knew,_ Lance thought to himself, smiling at the thought. It would be Lance’s secret though. Until he was sure that Keith trusted him enough that it would prevent the red paladin from looking for support again.

The new position gave Lance a view of Keith’s face. Unlike when he was awake, his expression was relaxed and at ease. It made him look so much younger than he was. It was nice and Lance wished he had a camera to capture it and remind himself that Keith wasn’t always a little ball of anger. Keith was also drooling and Lance _really_ wished he had a camera.

It was perfect blackmail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters won't necessarily follow a timeline, but they will all be connected with each other. I'll try to add notes to prevent any confusion. 
> 
> Please feel free to leave a comment~ I love seeing them they're inspiring~


	3. First Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smooch

Training had resumed after a couple of days. It wasn’t the same without Shiro and everyone was feeling his absence. Any time not spent training together was spent searching for some clue of where he was. So far, all they had been able to determine was that he was most likely alive. Coran and Allura mentioned that the Black Lion had some sort of teleporting ability and could have moved Shiro to a safe place, but they weren’t certain on how far that could be or how safe it was. The Black Lion wasn’t telling either, no matter who tried to connect with it.

Keith had taken to sleeping in Lance’s bed every night. He wasn’t always there when Lance went to sleep or when he woke up, but there were many times that the blue paladin would wake up and find the raven-haired teen curled up next to him. Neither of them mentioned it and if the other’s had noticed, they didn’t say anything

 A week after the battle, Allura called them together for a meeting.

“Paladins, I wished to discuss with you what our next move shall be,” Allura began. “I realize that… losing Shiro has made a significant impact on all of us and we all desperately want to find him, but so far we haven’t been able to find anything that could lead us to him.”

“So you want to give up on him?” Keith growled, glaring at the princess.

She flinched, letting her composure drop for a moment. “No. We _are_ going to find him. But there are still other people that need our help and we can’t waste time roaming around the universe hoping to just stumble upon him.” Allura paused, glancing at Keith to see if he would protest anymore. When he continued to silently glare at her, she continued. “If Shiro is alive, he will be trying to find his way back to us. By continuing our mission to dismantle the Galra Empire, we can make that task easier and gain more allies.”

Everyone around the table was quiet, taking in what Allura had said. Beside Lance, Keith was nearly shaking with barely contained anger. The red paladin knew that Allura was right in that they couldn’t just focus on finding Shiro when they had no idea where he was, but it still felt like they were giving up on him without even trying. It was so frustrating. He’d lost Shiro before and couldn’t save him, and now it was happening all over again.

Lance cleared his throat. “I think we should try and find Matt.” Everyone stared at him in surprise. “Pidge, you said that he was rescued by a rebel group, right? They might have information that can help us at least fight the Galra. I mean, if they were willing to break him out of prison, they have to be pretty well versed in Galra operations.”

“That’s a very good idea, Lance,” Allura said. Pidge looked happier than she had in ages, the familiar glint in her eye. “I’m sure that a group of rebels would certainly welcome Voltron as their ally. Pidge, how much information do you have on this rebel group?”

The young girl adjusted her glasses. “Not much, unfortunately. The Galra have been trying to keep track of them, but they’re pretty sneaky, so they haven’t had much luck. One of the reports said they suspected that their base might be on a planet called Olaer, so maybe we should start there. It isn’t Galra controlled at the moment, but they’ve attacked a couple times.”

“Ah, Olaerians are a tough people,” Coran said, thinking back fondly. “I remember when I was younger going to visit there. I bumped into someone by accident and the next thing I knew I was waking up in the hospital a week and a half later.” He laughed. “They do have a mean punch.”

“Sounds like a friendly place,” Hunk commented warily.

Allura nodded. “Olaer were once a powerful ally of Altea. I’m sure we’ll be welcomed when we arrive.”

The meeting was adjourned and everyone separated. The course to Olaer was set in. They were unable to travel by teludav because of the damage the ship had taken in the battle, so it would be a few days before they’d reach the planet.

Lance wandered around for a bit, finding that both Hunk and Pidge were busy assisting with the repairs. It was a bit too technical for the Cuban teen to understand, so he didn’t linger around them long. Eventually, he decided to head to the training deck.

Unsurprisingly, though he hadn’t really considered it, Keith was already there, fighting off one of the gladiators. His sword moved almost too fast for Lance to see as he slashed at the robot again and again. It was spectacular to watch, not that Lance would ever admit that to Keith. When the gladiator was defeated, Lance clapped a couple times, smirking when Keith jumped at the sound.

“Aw, did Keithy get scared?” he teased.

Keith rolled his eyes, wiping the sweat from his forehead. “Shut up, Lance. What do you want?”

The blue paladin shrugged. “Same as you. Training.” He held up his bayard, the gun materializing as he did. “Wanna train together?”

“Not really.”

“Wow.”

“Lance, I just want to be alone.”

He shrugged again. “Okay. That’s cool. I’m just gonna be over here then. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not all that good at fighting.”

“I noticed.” Keith smirked. “You’re shit.”

“Thanks.” Lance laughed, knowing that Keith didn’t _really_ mean it. “Have fun.”

They trained on opposite sides of the room, finding that there was plenty of space for the both of them without interfering with the other. Keith drowned out the sound of Lance’s blaster as he fought gladiator after gladiator, finding that it was far easier than when they had first arrived in the castle. _Have I really improved that much?_ He thought to himself after defeating a level five gladiator in barely over a minute.

He paused the onslaught of robots in favor of getting drink. As he did, he looked over to see how Lance was doing and nearly choked on his juice. Instead of using his bayard, Lance was wielding one of the Altean staffs he’d seen Allura use to fight a gladiator at close combat. It was a lower level one, Keith could tell, but the blue paladin was holding it off fairly well. Even from a distance, Keith could tell that Lance wasn’t used to the weapon and was still learning how to use it effectively. Still, he had to admit when Lance struck the gladiator’s head hard enough to dent it and win the fight, he wasn’t that bad.

“Lance,” he called as he walked over. “Why?” He pointed at the weapon in Lance’s hands.

The blue paladin smiled with a shrug, which he did a lot, Keith had noticed. “Guns can only do so much at close range. I figured it’d be good to at least be able to use other weapons, you know?” He twirled it around a bit. “Coran showed me some of the basics a couple days ago and I’ve been practicing with it when I can.”

“You’re not bad with it,” Keith mumbled.

Lance squinted at him, taking a step into the other’s personal space. “Did you just _compliment_ me?” He cackled when Keith looked away to scowl at the ground. “Keith Kogane complimented my fighting skills. I can’t wait to tell the others.”

“Shut up. That was barely a compliment. I didn’t say you were good.”

“Please. Not bad from you is basically saying you think I’m _amazing.”_

“Does not.”

“Does too.”

“Does _not.”_

“Well, it does when you say it to me, so ha!” Lance smiled at him victoriously. Keith wanted to punch that dumb smile off his face. He settled for tackling the other instead. “Hey, wait! Keith!”

They wrestled around on the floor, reminding Keith of the night Lance and he had drunk the space alcohol together. This was a little fiercer, but lacked the normal aggression that Keith might have once had. In the end, he managed to pin Lance down, straddling his waist while holding Lance’s hands above his head. They were both panting hard; Keith’s face hovered a few inches above Lance’s.

“Not bad just means you’re not bad,” he said, staring down at Lance, daring him to refute the statement. Keith had never been this close to Lance before and he’d never noticed how _blue_ the other’s eyes were. He definitely hadn’t been able to notice the tiny flecks of gold that ringed the outer edge of his irises. Without thinking he was leaning down closer, taking in every detail.

Lance’s eyes flickered down to look at Keith’s mouth, sending his mind into a storm of thoughts. What the hell was he doing? Why was he getting so close to Lance? Why was Lance _letting_ him? Warm breath brushed over his cheeks, making the rush of thoughts stutter for a moment. All it took was that moment for Keith to jerk forward the last inch and bring their lips together.

He didn’t close his eyes and neither did Lance, so they stared at each other, frozen with their lips connected. It wasn’t what Keith would describe as magical, but it did feel… nice didn’t seem like the right word, but he liked it. He pulled back after a few seconds, watching red spread across Lance’s face and knowing that the same was happening to him.

Neither of the boys dared to say anything as Keith got off him and returned to his side of the training area. With a quick command to the computer, he was back fighting again, all thoughts of the kiss thrown to the side. Lance watched him in a daze for a few moments before he got up to do the same.

Things were certainly getting interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: this chapter is 1666 words long, which is the standard daily word count for a Nanowrimo. It's not important, but I thought it was funny


	4. First Crush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is sort of a first crush type thing. I tried, okay?

They arrived at the planet with no incidents. The people of Olaer hadn’t been willing to trust them at first, but several reports of how they had been fighting against the Galra and had defeated Zarkon came in, they were welcomed with open arms. Olaerians were tall and large, nearly all muscle, even the women. Their hair was like thick ropes and their skin was somewhat scaly and came in various shades of green and blue. The most unnerving thing about them to Lance was that their eyes were milky white and gave them the ability to see in the dark. Appearances aside, they were incredibly friendly, if a bit unaware of their own strength. Lance had felt like his eyes were going to pop out when he’d been embraced by one of their guides and Pidge was sure Keith was bruised after being patted on the back by another one.

The rooms they were shown to were luxurious and large, at the top of towering building with a beautiful view of the city. A balcony connected the rooms from the outside, but Hunk made it fairly clear he’d rather just use the hall inside. The outside wall of each room was completely made of glass that could be made to be opaque when wanted. Lance leapt on to the large bed in his room, sinking into it with a sigh. It was like he was laying on the softest, cushiest cloud. He should ask Allura if they could get a couple of these mattresses back on the ship.

A movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Keith was walking along the balcony, taking in the view. _God, he looks emo,_ Lance immediately thought. If it had been raining, he would have thought it was a seen right out of some dramatic music video. Like with Keith sleeping with him, they hadn’t discussed the kiss and continued acting like normal, but Lance was dying to ask him what it had meant.

Of course, he was still trying to figure out what he wanted it to mean.

Lance had spent a lot of his free time either thinking about Keith or trying not to think about Keith, which always seemed to lead to him thinking about Keith. He had never thought of Keith in any romantical way. At least, not since Voltron had been a thing. Back at the Garrison, he may have had a _tiny_ crush on the other teen, but he mostly chalked that up to Keith being so amazing at flying and seemingly everything else. Part of the reason he’d started that stupid rivalry was so maybe Keith would notice him and realize Lance was something special too.

That had been ruined when Keith had been kicked out. Lance had gotten his wish of being a fighter pilot, but every day Keith was thrown into his face to remind him that he _wasn’t_ actually good enough, that he hadn’t proven himself better than anyone else. He’d started to resent Keith, for being so perfect, for not having to try half as hard as he did to get the same results, for throwing it all away because of some stupid discipline issue. It wasn’t until they had started acting like a team that he realized rather than hating Keith, he hated the _idea_ of Keith being perfect.

Keith wasn’t perfect. He was easily angered and impulsive. He made mistakes and failed to do things Lance could do. Sure, he was still really good at doing a lot of things which made him a great asset to the team, but he still wasn’t great at being part of the team. And Lance liked that, because then he could help Keith.

But a romance with Keith? In space where anything could happen and they were literally halfway across the universe from home? It was hard to imagine. It seemed selfish, almost. Like he was putting himself and his feelings before everyone else’s when people were literally dying because some asshole decided to conquer their planet.

Keith turned slightly from gazing at the city, noticing that Lance was looking. He smiled and waved, catching Lance off guard. The blue paladin waved back after a delay, turning red. The other didn’t seem to notice as he walked to the door, pointing at it questioningly to ask if he could come in. Lance nodded, sitting up.

“Hey, there Mullet-man. What can I do for you?” he asked as if he hadn’t been contemplating their relationship.

“I kind of wanted to tell you something.” Keith was fiddling with his stupid fingerless gloves and refused to look Lance in the eye.

 _Shit, this is about the kiss. Fuck, fuck, fuck! He’s gonna confess._ Lance started to run through possible ways of turning him down so Keith didn’t hate him. He just couldn’t really handle a relationship with everything that was happening. He wasn’t sure about how he felt towards Keith. They had other priorities that should come first. “Ooh~ mysterious. What is it?”

“Could you promise not to get mad first?”

Lance laughed at the childish request before remembering what was going to happen. He nodded solemnly, mentally preparing for what was going down. Chances were that Keith was going to be the mad one in the end.

“I- I, uh,” Keith started. He shut his eyes tightly and said in one breath, “I remember you from the garrison and I didn’t tell you because I was kinda embarrassed because I always thought you were kind of cool and I didn’t want to seem like some creep.”

Well. That wasn’t what Lance was expecting.

A slow smile spread across the Cuban boy’s face. “You thought I was cool.”

“That’s what you got out of that?” Keith groaned. “I thought you’d be mad or something! I forgot I was talking to you.”

“Well, us cool guys can’t really afford to go around blowing up at every little thing.” He shot Keith finger guns and the red paladin seemed to seriously consider stabbing him.

“But I lied to you!”

The taller chuckled. “Do you want me to get mad at you or something? I said it was cool.” He shrugged. “To be fair, I remember the bonding moment, so I think we’re even.”

“You WHAT?”

Fuck™

“Well, I didn’t remember it right away and then it would have been weird to just bring it up, so I didn’t.” Lance was eyeing the knife on Keith’s belt warily. He knew how fast Keith could draw that thing and have it on him. “But, hey, you lied to me the moment we met! So that’s way worse than just not mentioning I remembered something.”

“So you admit that we had a bonding moment?”

Keith was stalking towards him now. Having no where to go, Lance scrambled back onto the bed. “Yeah, yeah. We bonded. We totally bonded. We’re like best bros now. Bonded bros.” He was babbling, terrified that Keith was going to do something awful.

When the red paladin reached the edge of the bed, he stopped, staring down at the terrified teen. He smiled softly, which only caused Lance to be _more_ afraid. “That’s good. I’m glad you remember.”

“Ye-yeah. It’s a pretty great memory. Good bonding times are hard to come by-“

Keith bent down swiftly to kiss him once again, eyes closing instantly. Lance closed his as well in reaction. _What the fuck? He’s not supposed to be kissing me._ The red paladin began to slowly move his lips against Lance’s. _And I’m not supposed to be kissing back, fuckity fuck._

The blue paladin realized he was being pressed down when his back met the mattress, meaning that Keith was on top of him. And they were still kissing. Fuck. Lance brought a hand up to Keith’s shoulder, intending to push him away and say that he couldn’t but…

He couldn’t.

He didn’t want Keith to stop.

Lance wanted to keep kissing Keith. His heart was hammering in his chest and every nerve in his body seemed to be electrified. Keith was becoming more confident in his kissing and brought an arm up to rest next to Lance’s head, lowering his body closer to the one beneath him. Instinctively, Lance moved his hand from Keith’s shoulder up to cup the back of Keith’s head, his black hair feeling silky soft.

His brain was going fuzzy from the kissing and all the sensations. How was Keith able to do this to him now when he’d felt nothing last time? He was tempted to break the kiss to actually ask Keith what the hell he was doing to him when a tongue slid along his bottom lip. It was brief and over before Lance could really understand what was happening, but it was hot. Hot enough to draw an astronomically embarrassing sound out of the Cuban boy.

Keith lifted off him, staring at him with wide eyes. Lance could do nothing more than stare back as they turned very red. “I’m gonna go.” Keith vanished from above him and was out the door before Lance had sat up.

“What the fuck?” he whispered to himself, bringing a hand up to his lips. He needed help. He needed to talk to someone. He needed someone to feed him cookies and let him cry about his problems. He needed Hunk.

Lance stood up from the bed, ready to go find his lovable best friend, but after a brief glance down he decided that could wait a few minutes.

Fucking Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What the fuck, Keith? Stop running. 
> 
> Basically Lance's first real crush was on Keith (at least that's what I'm going with) I think first boner would be a better 'first' for this but I didn't want to give it away in the title.


	5. First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith finally get somewhere in their relationship. Sort of.

Lance was on his way to Hunk’s room when he ran into Coran. Quite literally, as he’d turned the corner and crashed into the adviser, sending papers flying everywhere.

“Oh, sorry, Coran,” he said, bending down to help gather them back up. “You okay?”

“Yes, yes, my dear boy. It takes more than a knock like that to rattle these old bones.” Coran laughed. “In fact, Keith just ran into me as well. He seemed to be quite preoccupied with something.”

“Really?” Lance asked. Coran gave him a surprised look and he realized he’d sounded way too interested. “I mean, well it’s just that Keith usually doesn’t, uh, run into people. It’s surprising. Maybe he’s sick.”

The ginger alien nodded. “Yes, he did appear to be quite red in the face and was covering his mouth with his hand. Perhaps he was in a rush to go throw up.”

 _Throw up? Because he kissed me? That’s a bit harsh._ Lance ignored the thoughts and finished straightening the papers. “Here. Sorry again for running into you.”

“It’s quite alright, Lance. Have a good evening.”

He was walking away when Lance blurted out: “Have any of the paladins ever dated?”

Coran turned back to look at him, head tilted. “Of course. Being a paladin of Voltron doesn’t mean you have to be celibate. I didn’t you think you would be concerned with that considering how often you flirt.”

“I meant, other paladins.” Coran gave him a confused look. “Paladins dating other paladins. Has it ever happened before?”

The older man twiddled his mustache as he thought back. “Well, I do know of one couple that was together when they were paladins. They had been together since childhood if I remember and had difficulty coping when they were separated for long periods of time.”

“Did that cause problems?”

“No, no,” Coran laughed. “They were much better when they were together that separating them wasn’t really considered. Their skills and personalities complimented each other perfectly. At times it would seem as if they were one being in two bodies rather than two separate people.”

“So everyone was cool with it? It wasn’t seen as weird or like they were being… selfish?”

Coran frowned. “Why would they be considered selfish? As far as I’m aware, it was never a problem. They were simply together.”

“But what if it was now? There are millions of people suffering under Zarkon? Isn’t it kind of selfish to want to have a romantic relationship when people are literally dying for their freedom?”

“Would not having a romantic relationship save them?” The question struck Lance hard. Coran walked forward to pat his shoulder comfortingly. “You are allowed to find happiness, Lance. In fact, now would be a great time to do so, with all the hate and fear in the world. A little more love could only help.”

Lance nodded, relieved and feeling oddly like he was about to cry. “Thank you, Coran.”

“Any time, Lance. If you have any more questions or worries, feel free to come find me.” Coran continued on his way, but paused once again. “Oh, it may interest you to know that the two paladins I spoke of piloted the red and blue lions. Good evening.”

~

“We should go explore the city a bit today,” Hunk said the next at breakfast. Lance had never gotten around to talking to him, having gone back to his room and buried himself under his blankets after Coran had dropped that little bomb on him. He still wasn’t sure exactly what Coran meant by it and he wasn’t about to go up and just ask. “It’s supposed to be pretty safe, right? And we really haven’t been able to experience an alien city without being under threat of the Galra yet, have we?”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Allura agreed. Pidge made a grossed-out face, clearly not excited about the idea. “We’ve spent a lot of time aboard the ship. It’d be good for all of us to have a change of scenery.”

“What if we’d rather, uh, not?” Pidge asked.

The princess seemed rather confused at the question. “Well, it isn’t a mandatory outing, I suppose. But it would be more fun if all of us could go together.”

“But all we do is spend time together,” Pidge retorted. “A change of scenery could also mean a change of people.”

“Sure.” Allura deflated and Lance was about to say something flirty that would no doubt earn him many groans, but just then Keith walked in and he lost all ability to say anything.

They had all been given clothes to wear, which after weeks of wearing either armor or the clothes they had left Earth in, it was a pleasant change to see everyone in something different. But _Keith’s_ outfit. His pants were still black, but tighter and of a shiny material that looked almost wet. They showed every wonderful curve of Keith’s legs. Which was, you know, _nice,_ but it was the shirt that made it difficult for Lance to breathe. It was a, unsurprisingly, red tank top that, like the pants was very close fitting. That wasn’t really the problem. The problem was that it barely made it half way down Keith’s torso before it just…ended. Leaving Keith’s stomach very exposed.

He walked it in like it was just his normal outfit even though everyone was staring at him. “What?”

“Dude, your shirt…” Hunk began. He let out a giggle. “Was it a mistake or did they think that that was just your style? ‘Cause of how short your jacket is.”

Keith shrugged, helping himself to the food. “It’s just what they gave me. I thought it’d be rude if I didn’t wear it.” He looked around everyone’s faces, lingering on Lance’s a bit longer than the rest, but the Cuban boy wasn’t looking at him. “Should I change?”

“I think you look very nice, Keith,” Allura said, polite as ever. Pidge and Hunk both burst out laughing, not even bothering to hide it. While everyone was distracted by the princess scolding them, Lance snuck out of the room.

He went back to his room for a bit, trying to calm himself down. The rest of their clothes weren’t that different from what they had been wearing. But Keith’s, holy shit. It shouldn’t be legal. After an hour of pacing around his room, trying to banish the image of Keith is a crop top from his mind, he gave up and went to find Hunk, figuring he could take him up on the offer to go exploring. At the very least, it would keep him away from Keith for a while.

Hunk, unfortunately, wasn’t in his room. As he was leaving to go see if he could find someone else, he ran into Keith, because _of course._ And he was still wearing that fucking shirt. “Oh, uh, hey.”

“Hey. You okay?” Keith was looking at him in concern.

Lance was doing his best to not stare at Keith’s stomach. It shouldn’t be that big of a deal. It wasn’t like Keith was shredded or anything. There was some definition there and the skin looked so soft and touchable, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. “Have you seen Hunk?”

“He left with Allura to go walk around. Why? Did you need him for something?”

 _I need you,_ some voice in Lance’s mind whispered. He ignored it. “Ah, I was just going to ask if he wanted to do that, actually. Just, you know, with me. But I guess not. Haha.” Lance had never felt more awkward. “I’m just gonna go.” He moved to go around Keith.

“I could go with you.” The blue paladin froze and Keith looked down at his hands. He was still wearing the gloves. “If you want company that is. I mean, it’d be better if no one went out alone. Safety in numbers.”

“Yeah,” Lance squeaked. He cleared his throat, looking away and trying to look cool. “Yeah, if you want to come, you can. I guess.”

Keith smiled, he could see it out of the corner of his eye. “Okay.”

They were quiet for the journey down to the street and Lance couldn’t decide it that was because of what had happened with the kiss or if it was just a normal silence. He really had no idea what Keith wanted from him, and, if he was being honest with himself, Lance didn’t know what he wanted from Keith either. He knew he liked him in a more than friendly way, but he didn’t know how deep those feelings were. Did he want to date Keith? If it wouldn’t affect the team, then maybe, but there so many risks and everyone was at a delicate place at the moment without Shiro. He didn’t want to add any more drama.

“Let’s go this way,” Keith suggested, grabbing Lance’s arm to tug him to the left. When he let go, Lance could feel the place he’d touch tingling. “I thought I saw some kind of park from the window.”

Lance swallowed thickly, following Keith as they made their way through the busy streets. It really was interesting to see so many aliens from many different planets all in one place without fighting any of them. There were thousands of different shops selling things that Lance had never heard of to do things that he couldn’t even begin to guess at. They went into a few of the more interesting ones to have a closer look.

There was indeed a large grassy area with trees and paths that looked like parks back home. Except that the grass was a dull orangey-red and the trees were blue.  A large fountain was at the center and it was there that Lance and Keith sat for a while to rest. The sun was high overhead at that point and it was incredibly hot. The light clothing that Lance had been given suddenly made sense, and when he risked looking over Keith again, so did the crop top.

“Should we head back, or do you want to look around some more?” Keith asked after they’d rested for a while.

Children were splashing in the fountain and it reminded Lance of going to the beach with his family back home. “I kinda want to just stay here for a bit longer. You can go back if you want.” The blue paladin leaned back, closing his eyes. He could almost pretend he was home again.

“No, I’ll stay. There’s not much to do back there anyways.” They sat in silence for a few minutes. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where’re you-?” Lance began but Keith was already walking away. He looked very determined, like he was going to fight someone. The Cuban boy debated following him to make sure that didn’t happen, but Keith was an adult and he could make his own decisions. And he looked _so_ good walking away.

He appeared to be talking to a man at a food stand. There were several of them strewn throughout the park. The paladins had been given cards that would allow them to purchase nearly anything they wanted, as a thanks for fighting the Galra, but Lance had completely forgotten to bring his, so buying things wasn’t really an option. He had thought that Keith had forgotten his as well, but, when the man handed Keith two somethings, Lance realized he was wrong.

The somethings remained a mystery until Keith got closer to reveal them to be what looked like chocolate ice cream cones. “There’s ice cream on this planet?” Lance asked, amazed. He took the one that Keith offered.

“I think it’s ice cream. I’m not sure how it’ll taste, but it can’t hurt to try it.”

“Keith, you’re brilliant.” Lance took a lick of the treat. “Holy shit.”

Keith looked alarmed at his reaction. “Is it bad?” He hurried to taste it as well. “It’s actually ice cream.”

Lance laughed, overjoyed at this discovery. “It’s weird that it looks like chocolate, but it tasted like mint.”

The shorter teen frowned. “Mint? It tasted like strawberry.”

“Maybe yours is different.” Without thinking, Lance leaned over to lick Keith’s ice cream. “No, that’s definitely mint. I should know. It’s my favorite.”

“Well, strawberry is mine and that’s what it is.” Keith’s face was getting red. Lance’s brain finally caught up with what he’d done and any arguments he had got stuck in his throat. “Maybe it just changes based on what the person eating it likes?”

Lance focused on eating his ice cream and not looking at Keith. “Maybe.”

They finished their ice cream and roamed around the park for a bit longer before heading back to the building. This time they took a different route so the two paladins could see different shops. By the time they walked into the building they were staying at, Lance was grateful for the coolness of the air. He loved the heat, but nothing beat air conditioning.

“You two finally get back from your date?” Pidge asked. She was lounging in one of the odd-shaped chairs in the lobby. “Hunk and Allura are still out there.”

“You should go out too. Get some sun. You’re so pale.” Lance ruffled her hair, jumping away when she slapped at his hand. “There’s some pretty cool tech out there. You might be interested.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, going back to typing on her computer. “Maybe later. Go away.”

Lance shrugged, heading towards the elevator. The red paladin followed him, deep in thought. When the elevator doors closed, he turned to the taller teen. “Was this a date?”

The Cuban boy choked. “What?”

“Pidge said it was a date, so I was kind of wondering if it…was.” Keith stared down at his feet, voice getting smaller as he spoke. There was a pout on his lips that had Lance melting. He looked so cute and kissable.

“Well,” Lance said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. “If it were a date, we’d have to kiss during it, wouldn’t we? Or at the end, I guess.”

“Oh.” They were zooming up to their floor now. Keith turned to Lance and shoved him against the wall, his mouth finding the blue paladin’s and slotting their lips together. Lance’s heart stopped for a moment before it began pounding in his ears. Once again, Keith was kissing him and Lance was perfectly happy to respond to it. He brought a hand up to cup Keith’s jaw, thumb brushing gently over his cheek as they kissed. His other hand rested on the small of Keith’s back, fingers tracing over the knobs of Keith’s spine.

The shorter shuddered at the feeling, mouth opening with a gasp. Bravely, Lance slid his tongue inside a bit, curious. Keith’s tongue met his with a little whimper from the back of his throat. Lance pulled Keith closer, sucking on his bottom lip.

Then the doors opened with a whoosh and they broke apart like they’d been caught. There was no one there, luckily. The pair stepped out into the corridor, glancing nervously at each other. “I’m gonna…” Lance pointed towards his room, taking a few slow steps toward it, waiting to see if Keith would stop him. He didn’t, but he also didn’t seem to really be aware of anything. “Thanks for coming with me. It was nice.”

“Yeah. Nice.”

Lance left Keith staring into space and went to his room, flopping onto his bed. How the hell did he manage to get into this situation? And why did they never bother to talk about what they were doing? It was increasingly frustrating and Lance wasn’t sure how much longer he could wait.

Still, it was a very nice first date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting spicy. I didn't mean for this chapter to be so long, but I still wanted everything to make sense, so there it is. I hope you guys are enjoying this. The next five days will be based on reliance, so look forward to it.


	6. Fighting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team relying on Keith in battle

“Paladins!” Allura shouted as she entered the dining room that evening. “The Galra are attacking a nearby planet and they’ve requested our assistance.”

Everyone stared at her for a moment, some with food halfway to their mouths. Then the four humans were moving, scrambling to get up and moving. They went to the roof where a pod was waiting to take them up to the ship. The group was silent the entire time, one thing on all of their minds: this was their first fight without Shiro.

Once they reached the ship, they were off to get into their armor and then to the lions. By the time everyone was ready to go, they had arrived at the planet. The natives had begun fighting off the Galra invaders, but they had a limited amount of ships and not nearly enough firepower to keep them at bay for long.

“Alright, paladins! Go! Show them the might of Voltron!”

The Galra ships immediately swarmed them the moment the lions were launched. Keith put on a burst of speed and attacked first, melting several ships at once. “Guys, how are we going to take out the big ship?” he asked. There was only one luckily, but without Voltron it was going to be a pain to take down.

“I can try to take out the cannon with my lion’s ability,” Pidge offered. “It’ll buy us some time at the very least.”

“Okay, let’s do that. Hunk, try to keep the ship busy while she does her thing. Lance and I’ll keep the smaller ships off your back.”

Lance huffed. “Why is Keith in charge? When did we decide that?”

The red paladin rolled his eyes. “I’m not in charge, Lance. I just want to get this over with. And, just so you know, Shiro said he wanted me to lead Voltron.”

There was a scoff over the speaker. “Yeah, yeah. But do we really want someone with three Galra ships on his tail to lead us?” Keith barely had time to check to see if the ships were there before they were incased in ice. “No worries, I got you.” He sounded so confident when he said it, it sent a shiver down Keith’s spine. “It’s a good plan though.”

“It’s great that you guys are getting a long and all,” Hunk interjected, “but I’m kinda getting pummeled here and could use some existence.”

“Same here,” Pidge added. “You guys fight when you’re supposed to get along and when we need you to fight someone, all you do is flirt with each other.”

“We’re not _flirting!”_ Lance screeched. He was focusing more on fighting the ships now though. “Hey, Keith, I bet I can destroy more ships than you.”

Keith smirked, leaning forward. “You’re on.”

“Paladins, please focus on defending the planet,” Allura reminded them.

At first, the fight seemed to be going well. Keith’s plan seemed to work out well and the cannon was disabled so the Galra wasn’t able to cause devastating damage. But to Keith, something was setting him on edge. It was too easy. The Galra weren’t fighting nearly as hard as normal. It couldn’t just be because of them defeating Zarkon. It felt wrong.

“There’s some kind of energy building on the ship!” Coran’s voice cut through the chaos of the battle.

“Like a weapon?” Pidge asked as she flew along the side of the ship, leaving a wake of exploding plant life behind her.

There was a pause. “No, not quite. It almost looks like they’re going to—Paladins, get out of there! They’re going to open a wormhole!”

The warning came too late and the hole in space already opened next to Keith. It wasn’t like the ones Allura opened. This wormhole was black and rough around the edges and sucked the red lion into it with a hard jerk. Keith was thrown from his seat as he and the lion went spinning into the dark abyss. The last thing he heard before he passed out was Lance shouting.

“Keith!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is only part of what I had planned for this update, but it's late for me and I have an early day tomorrow so I don't really have time to finish it tonight. There'll be more Klancey goodness tomorrow.


	7. Healing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance takes care of Keith when he's hurt

Lance barely thought about what he was doing as he directed the blue lion to rocket towards the black wormhole that the red lion had just vanished into. Already it had begun to close and Lance feared that he wouldn’t make it in time. The blue lion growled in his head and put on a burst of speed that Lance hadn’t thought was possible. They made it just in time, the wormhole closing just behind the lions tail, shutting off communication with the rest of the team, so Lance was surrounded by an eerie quiet.

Blue’s presence was a comfort as they rode through tunnel. It wasn’t a smooth as when Allura opened one, but it wasn’t as bad as when Haggar had corrupted the wormhole after they’d rescued the princess. At least it wasn’t for him. Keith hadn’t been expecting to go through. What if he didn’t have any control over where he went? What if he’d been thrown out of it at some random location and Lance wasn’t going to be able to find him?

The thoughts had barely begun to roll across his mind when they came out the other side. The lion was hurtling towards a planet. Lance pulled at the controls, trying to gain some control over their descent, but Blue was unresponsive. _Not again,_ was all he could think, watching the planet’s surface grow closer and closer. He closed his eyes and braced for impact, praying that Keith was in fact on the damn planet.

It was a rough landing, but somehow Lance felt like he’d had worse ones in the simulator back at the Garrison. When Blue didn’t move at his command he sighed, getting up from the pilot’s seat. “I’m going to take a look around, girl.” He climbed up to the hatch that let him out on top of the lion, giving him a good vantage point to look around.

They were in a dense forest, with trees that towered high over them. It reminded Lance of the rainforests back home. Beneath the canopy it seemed rather dark and threatening. He searched the sky to see if there was any sign of the red lion flying around. “Keith?” he asked into the commlink. “Keith, can you hear me?”

There was no answer.

“Keith, listen. Blue is out of commission for the moment and I’m kind of alone here, so I’d really appreciate it if you’d answer.” There was still nothing and panic was starting to color Lance’s voice. “Keith, I need you to say something. I just need to know if you’re here or if you’re alive. Just say _something._ Tell me I’m an idiot or that I’m an awful pilot. Just- just say something.” A hard lump in his throat was threatening to choke the blue paladin now.

“Lance.”

A spark flew through Lance’s body, lighting up his smile. “Keith. Keith, buddy. You’re alive. You’re here. Holy crow, I thought I lost you.” His joy turned to annoyance in a heartbeat. “What the hell took you so long? I was actually getting worried about your stupid ass.”

“Sorry.” His voice sounded weak and pained. “I didn’t think anyone else got sucked in with me.”

“I, uh, didn’t get sucked in. I kinda flew in.”

There was a long silence. When Keith spoke again, he was clearly angry. “What? Lance, why didn’t you stay with the team? We can’t risk splitting up like this. The more we split, the weaker everyone is. That was really stupid.”

“Yeah, well, sorry for wanting to save you. Next time I won’t.” Lance sat down on the lion, pouting even though he knew Keith had no way to see him. “I didn’t realize you’d rather just be on your own on some quiznaking planet.”

Keith groaned. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that the wormhole could have easily led to a black hole or the center of a star and we’d have both died. I don’t want you to die because of me.”

The Cuban boy scoffed. “Like you wouldn’t do the same thing. Don’t forget who the impulsive one is.”

He heard a weak chuckle through the speaker. “Pretty sure you’re just as impulsive as I am.” Keith hissed. “Hey, uh, Lance? Do you think you could come find me? I don’t think I’m gonna be going anywhere soon.”

“What?” Lance asked, alarmed at how pained the other sounded. “Why? Are you okay? What’s wrong?” As he spoke, he turned on the locator, a red symbol appearing on his helmet’s visor to indicate the direction Keith was in. “I’m on my way now.”

“Okay. Good.” Keith sighed. “I gotta tossed around a little when I went through the wormhole and I think my arm’s broken. And there’s a cut on my leg, but I have no idea how that happened. There’s nothing sharp in here.”

Lance leapt of his lion, landing lightly on the spongy grass. “Weird.” There were several trees that had been knocked down by the lion crashing. He carefully made his way through the branches and into the dark shade of the forest. “Hey, keep talking to me okay? I need to know you’re still alive.”

“I keep thinking this is just like after we rescued Allura,” Keith said. “Shiro was hurt then and I was the one going to rescue him.”

“Didn’t he almost get mauled by weird alien lion-lizard things?”

Keith laughed. “Yeah. If I hadn’t been able to get the Black Lion to accept me, he would have been screwed.”

“But you’re inside Red now, right?” Lance asked, hardly able to breathe until Keith said he was. They kept talking for nearly an hour as Lance made his way to where the Red Lion had crash-landed. Lance wasn’t sure how well he would’ve been able to handle the journey without Keith’s voice in his ear. He had never been fond of the woods, and dark alien woods when he was alone was not something he wanted to experience.

Finally, he could see the other lion. “Keith, I’m here! I’m gonna come in through the top, okay? Hang on a bit longer.”

“Okay.” His voice had grown noticeably weaker during the journey and Lance had to strain to hear it now. He sprinted to the Lion and scrambled up to the top.

“Keith, buddy?” Lance called as he climbed down the ladder. He found the pilot laying on the floor of the cockpit. A small puddle of blood was gathered around his right thigh and his left arm was definitely broken. “Hey, you still awake?”

Keith opened his eyes and smiled up at the Cuban boy. “Hey there, hot stuff. Come here often?”

Lance couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “What the quiznak? Are you delirious or something?”

“You’re deliriously beautiful.”

“Ugh, that’s worse than my any of my lines.” Lance brushed some Keith’s hair out of his face. “Just relax, okay? I’m going to get a medkit and I’ll have you patched up in no time.”

“You know how?”

“Coran taught me.” The blue paladin reached into one of the cabinets towards the back of the cockpit, pulling out a bright orange box. “He was planning on having a team wide lesson on first aid and stuff, but then everyone was busy with getting everything ready for the attack. There wasn’t time.”

Keith watched what Lance was doing as best he could but his eyes refused to stay open. “We had first aid classes at the Garrison.”

“Yeah, but not with Altean medicine and tech. I mean, a lot of it is the same, like how to set a broken bone or bandage a wound, but they have some advanced tech that really helps. Also you have to consider the dosages for the drugs and which ones are safe for humans.” As he spoke, Lance’s hands were busy, preparing some sort of spray. “This is going to make your whole body numb, so don’t panic or generally try to move. Open your mouth.” He positioned the nozzle above Keith’s open mouth and pressed the button.

The red paladin grimaced as a strange tasting chemical coated his mouth. “That’s awful.”

Lance hummed, sorting through strange devices in the box. “I don’t think your leg is bleeding anymore, so I’m going to set your arm first and then deal with that.” He pulled out a pair of scissors. “I’m going to be very careful, so just stay calm and still.”

He didn’t need to tell Keith that. His body had become incredibly heavy and he doubted he could move even if he wanted to. With his eyes half closed, Keith stared up at Lance’s face. His lower lip was caught between his teeth as he concentrated, brow furrowed. There was an intense look in those blue eyes that had a blush forming on Keith’s cheeks when he realized Lance was focusing entirely on him, on taking care of him.

 _He’s just taking care of his teammate,_ Keith reminded himself. _It’s not that big of a deal. He’s not doing this because you’re special to him._ But they had also three times already. Two of those times, Lance had kissed back. Maybe Lance did think he was special. Maybe Lance liked him.

Which was a problem because he wasn’t sure if he liked Lance. He liked kissing Lance and being around Lance. But he couldn’t tell if it was because it was Lance or because he like the attention he got from Lance. The thought that he was only after Lance to get affection in the wake of Shiro’s disappearance constantly shadowed his thoughts. There was only way he could truly know how genuine his feelings for Lance were, and that was to find Shiro, preferably before he did something he’d regret and permanently damage his relationship with Lance.

“How numb are you right now?” Lance’s voice startled Keith from his thoughts. Not that Lance noticed, as the red paladin’s body didn’t move an inch.

“Pretty numb.”

“Can you feel that?”

“Feel what?”

“Okay, good.” Lance took a deep breath. “I’m gonna move the bone back into place now.”

Keith realized Lance had been cutting away the sleeve of his armor so he had access to the broken arm. He watched as the other’s hands touched him, but he didn’t feel a single thing. His eyes fell shut when Lance did exactly what he said, a little grossed out. Lance had winced when he did it, showing that he hadn’t enjoyed it either. “Is there anything in there that can just heal the bone?”

“No, you’ll have to wait to get back to the castle for that. There’s some pain meds though, so you won’t feel it too much.” Lance began pulling out bandages and a metal brace for a splint. “Just gotta wrap this up and that should be good to go for a while. It’s not very pretty looking though, ha.” It wasn’t, but Keith didn’t care. “Alright, now for your leg.”

The scissors were back in Lance’s hand and he was carefully cutting away the fabric around the cut. Keith couldn’t see what he was doing from the angle, but he knew where the cut was and it was close enough to somewhere else that he was getting embarrassed. Lance’s cheeks were a little red as well, but he was still very focused on his work. Keith was surprised he hadn’t made any sort of joke or teased Keith for getting hurt yet. It was odd, but also kind of nice.

Lance hissed in surprised. “Shit, the blood dried on to the fabric.”

“Oh.”

The blue paladin scrambled around in the orange box pulling out a bottle of a lavender liquid and dry cotton pad. “It’s gonna start bleeding again. I don’t think you’ve lost too much, but I don’t think you should lose too much more.”

“It’s fine. Just do what you have to.” Keith smiled at him. “I trust you.”

Lance stared at him, a smile slowly growing on his face. Not his usual cheery one, or the smug confident one he used while flirting; this one was sweet and innocent and genuine. “Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A longer update, but I still didn't include everything I wanted, but oh well. Please continue to support this story~


	8. Camping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance continues to take care of Keith

Lance had finished cleaning and bandaging the cut on Keith’s leg by the time the Red lion powered back up. Keith had fallen asleep at some point. Or passed out from the drugs and exhaustion, but Lance preferred to call it sleep. Carefully he carried Keith into the back of the lion and laid him on one of the narrow bunks, covering him with a blanket. They weren’t comfortable to sleep on, but it was their best option at the moment.

Next, he cleaned off the blood from the floor as best he could, which he could feel the red lion approve of. It was odd to be able to feel the red lion’s presence as much as he did. They had never really connected before. Then again, Keith was the only one who had ever piloted someone else’s lion so it wasn’t that strange that Lance tended to focus on Blue. Then again, Keith had also been able to sense Blue’s energy back on Earth. Was he some kind of magic lion robot whisperer or something?

“Hey, Keith, you awake?” He gently shook Keith’s shoulder. The paladin’s face wrinkled up but he didn’t give any other response. “Okay then. I hope you don’t wake up before I come back, but just to be safe…” Lance typed out a quick message on the screen closest to Keith, explaining that he was going to get the blue lion and that he’d be back soon. “Keep an eye on him, Red. If he wakes up, don’t let him do anything stupid.” The red lion growled in response as if chiding it for stating the obvious.

The walk back to the blue lion was better and worse than before. Without Keith’s voice keeping him company and giving him something to focus on, Lance noticed the forest scenery a lot more, and while it was pretty, he couldn’t help but shiver at the thought of what kind of dangerous wildlife could be lurking all around him. _But I don’t have to worry about Keith dying on me,_ Lance thought, trying to see the bright side of the situation. It kind of worked, but the walk felt a lot longer this time than it had before.

Lance reached the blue lion and was settling into the pilot’s seat when Keith’s voice came through the speaker. “Lance? Where are you?”

“Hey, you’re awake! Welcome back to the land of the living, Mullet,” Lance greeted, cheerily. “I’m bringing Blue over to you now, since she’s back and ready to go. I want to have a quick look at the area as well. See if I can find some sort of river or lake that we can camp by.”

“Good idea. I’ll help.”

“Keith Jeremiah Kogane, if you try to pilot that Lion I will tie to that bed until we are rescued,” the Blue paladin threatened, doing his best imitation of his mother when she was angry.

Keith huffed a little laugh. “My middle name isn’t Jeremiah.”

“That’s not the point. Just don’t try to do anything until I get back.” The blue lion was flying over the trees, reaching where the red Lion stood within minutes. Lance went a little higher, scanning over the tree tops to see if there was a gap in the canopy where a body of water stood. “You’ll end up hurting yourself more and I’ve already bandaged you up more today than I want to in my life.”

“And yet you threaten to tie me up.” There was a teasing tone to Keith’s voice. “To be honest, I’m not that surprised you’re into that kind of thing.”

“Shut up. I think I found a nice place for us to camp.” A waterfall poured out of a steep cliff had collected into several small pools that eventually flowed into a river. The area around it was relatively clear of trees, so there would be room for the lions and the cliff would give them an amount of shelter from the weather. “I’m coming back to get you and then we’ll work out how to get both the lions here. Do you think Red could just fly on her own?”

“I doubt it, unless I’m in danger.”

“I could push you in the river.”

Keith snorted. “You just threatened to tie me to my bed for even thinking about getting up, but now you’re willing to drown me?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks, Lance.”

Blue set down next to the smaller lion. “Anytime, buddy.” He entered the red lion, smiling when he saw the dark haired teen still laying where he’d left him. “How are you feeling? Any pain?”

“Not really. Just kinda achey.” Keith tried to sit up and Lance hurried to help him. “I think if I’m careful I can get the Red Lion to whatever spot you found. Just help me get to the cockpit.”

“Maybe you should rest a bit longer. It’s not like we’re in any danger here.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “I’m fine, Lance. You did an excellent job at patching me up. Let’s just get the lions over there now.”

The blue paladin sighed. “Fine. But you have to promise me you’ll take it easy until we get rescued. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Lance half-carried the red paladin to the pilot’s seat and made sure Keith was comfortable before he returned to his own lion. The flight to his chosen campsite was tense, at least for the Cuban boy. He kept an ear out for any sort of sign at that Keith was in pain or having an issue. His piloting wasn’t nearly as graceful or fast as it usually was, but Lance wondered if that was because Keith was being careful specifically for Lance’s benefit rather than because he was injured.

The sun was beginning to set when they landed in the shadow of the cliff. Lance paused to take in the scene when he left the blue lion. The waterfall covered most of the strange calls of the alien fauna and a quick check with one of the Altean gadgets showed that the water was safe for them to drink. There was a store of food rations aboard each of the lions that could last them up to a month, but they would have had to purify the water themselves and even with alien technology it would be tiring to collect and process. And it would have made keeping clean almost too much of a chore to do.

“Alright, Keith, back to bed with you,” he announced when he walked into Red’s cockpit.

Keith sighed, using his uninjured leg to spin the chair around. “Could you maybe make it more comfortable first? It feels like I’m just laying on a metal shelf rather than a bed.”

The blue paladin laughed. “You know, I’m not all that sure that it isn’t.” He laughed again at Keith’s annoyed look. “Alright, look, there’s supposed to be some sort of mattress-sleeping bag type thing in here somewhere for this reason. I’ll find it and lay it on the shelf-bed. Will that make you happy?”

“Are you planning on sleeping in the blue lion?” Keith asked as Lance ventured towards the back, looking for the sleeping bag.

“I hadn’t thought about it, but I guess it’d be better if I slept here in case you need something. I’d hate to have to come over here in the middle of the night because you had to pee.” Keith rolled his eyes even though Lance had no way of seeing it. “I’ll grab the sleeping bag once I get you set up and bring it over. If that’s okay with you, that is.” The Cuban teen popped into view again, holding a red sleeping back.

“Why wouldn’t it be okay?” Keith asked, leaning in his chair to watch Lance spread it out on the bed. The angle made it difficult and he silently cursed himself for getting hurt. “It makes sense that we’d both sleep in one lion rather than separately.”

Lance shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought maybe you’d just rather sleep alone.” He said it like it was just a normal thing for Keith to want to be alone, which it _was._ But there was something in his voice that told Keith that Lance was alluding to something else.  Like how Keith had stopped sleeping in the same bed as Lance after he’d kissed him on the training deck. “There. Now let’s get you into bed.”

Rather than just assisting Keith, Lance scooped the shorter boy up into his arms like he weighed nothing. Keith’s good arm went around Lance’s neck, clinging to him. “Warn me next time before you do that.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t squirm or I’ll drop you.” Lance didn’t seem to have any trouble holding him though and was incredibly gentle when he laid Keith onto the bed. The sleeping bag thing certainly did help a lot and Keith found himself getting sleepy. “Do you want anything for the pain now, or are you good?”

“I’m good.” His eyes fell shut when Lance stroked his hair once, Keith’s heart skipping a beat. Damn it, Lance was too sweet for the red paladin’s health. “Don’t take too long.”

“I won’t. Get some rest.” Lance turned the lights to a low setting before he slipped out of the room. Keith was dead asleep by the time he’d gotten out of the lion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's gonna be some /very/ exciting stuff happening tomorrow. You may want to note that this rated Explicit for a reason ;)


	9. Bathing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They take a bath

“Keithy boy, time to rise and shine.”

Lance was far too energetic in the mornings. Keith had known that before they were stranded on the planet, but now that he had no choice but to deal with the blue paladin, the fact was really starting to sink in. He groaned, glaring at the tall teen who was rolling up his sleeping bag. He’d spent the night on the floor next to Keith’s bed. It’d been comforting to wake up and hear Lance’s even breathing next to him. Without thinking, Keith had tried to get up so he could move closer, wanting to touch Lance somehow, but was stopped as a sharp pain sent the air rushing out of his lungs.

“Go away. I want to sleep.”

“Uh-uh. You need to eat something. You didn’t eat anything after we landed here yesterday.”

“Neither did you.”

The blue paladin crossed his arms. “Yeah, well, I’m not the injured one. Now I’m gonna help you sit up.” He did and Keith let out a hiss of pain. “Is the pain bad? I can get you something for it.”

Keith shook his head, trying to wave away Lance’s concern. “No, I just moved it too suddenly. As long as I stay still, it’s fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” Keith closed his eyes, not wanting to see Lance’s worried face so close to his. It was sending certain thoughts through his brain that he didn’t want to deal with at the moment. “I am kind of hungry though.” He wasn’t, but it got Lance to move his attention away from his wellbeing.

Lance began sorting through the various packets and boxes that held their food rations. “Of course you are. It’s a pity Pidge or Hunk isn’t here. They’d actually know how to use these.”

“You don’t?” Keith asked, surprised. “But you knew how to work the medical stuff.”

“I’m sure I can figure this out.” Lance frowned at the Altean writing before shrugging and ripping open the packet in his hand to peek inside. “I don’t suppose you know how to, do you?”

“Why would I?”

“Because you’re mister Survival Guy. You lived in a cabin in the middle of the desert for what, a year? Surely you know how to deal with these things.”

“Yeah, I bought my food from a store. I had my hoverbike so I wasn’t exactly cut off from the rest of the world, remember?”

“Damn it.”

Keith laughed. “You upset because I’m not as badass as you thought?”

“Kinda.” Lance stuck his finger into the packet, licking off the powder on it. “Mostly because it means you’re gonna be pretty useless now.”

“Yeah, that’s me. The useless guy on the bed.” Keith pretended he couldn’t hear how bitter he sounded. “Any ideas on how you’re going to make breakfast?”

“Some. Just give me a couple minutes.” Lance turned so his back blocked Keith’s view of what he was doing. He could still hear him muttering under his breath in what sounded like Spanish. By the time he did actually figure out how to create food from the strange packages, Keith had become hungry. “Here you are. Space scrambled eggs.”

The food in the bowl Lance handed him really did look like scrambled eggs, except that they were bright blue and flecked with dark purple. “You sure this is how it’s supposed to look?”

Lance frowned, insulted. “They might not look all that good to us, but they taste fine. Eat up.” The blue paladin sat at the other end of the bed with his own bowl.

Keith sighed and took a bite. They tasted like the space goo back on the ship, but with a different texture. Did Alteans have a sense of taste? Or was the food the paladins were given some weird health food type of thing that wasn’t part of the usual Altean diet? He’d have to ask Allura or Coran about it when they got back to the ship. “So, what are we going to do today?”

“Well, you are going to rest. I might explore a bit, see what’s around us.” Lance shrugged. “I guess there’s really not that much we can do.” He took another bite of the space eggs, scowling down at it. “I’m definitely going to go for a bath though. I’m all sweaty and gross. You should have one too. Wash your mullet.”

The red paladin elected to ignore the comment about his hair. “I’ll get the bandages wet. I’ll wait until we’re rescued.”

Lance made a disgusted face. “Who knows how long that can be though. Gross, dude.” He set the now empty bowl aside. “Once you finish eating, I’ll wrap the bandage on your leg so it’s waterproof and then we’ll get all nice and clean.”

“I can’t exactly stand or wash myself.”

A faint blush covered Lance’s cheeks. “I’ll help you then.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I’m not going to live with a stinky, greasy Keith.” Lance had the same determined look he wore when he wasn’t going to give in until he got what he wanted. Keith looked away, eating the weird purple food. “I’m going to look around the river to find a calm spot. Be back in a bit.”

After Lance had left the Lion, Keith buried his face in his hands. “What the fuck?” he whispered to himself. There was no logical way for him to get into this situation, and he was pretty damn sure logic wasn’t going to get him out either. He was going to take a bath with Lance. Naked. With Lance _washing_ him. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.”

~

“Don’t be so grumpy, Keithy. Once you get all clean, I’m sure you’ll be much happier.” Lance was being his normal self, which was a comfort, but Keith felt like his heart was trying to escape out of his chest. The blue paladin was carrying him from the Red Lion down to the water. Instead of just going directly to the river though, Lance walked along the riverbank towards the cliff and into a small cave at the base of it. Water had collected there into a tranquil pool. “It’s nice and warm too, so worries about shrinking any smaller than you already are.”

“Fuck off. You’re just stupidly tall.” Keith was refusing to look at him, crossing his arms like a child. “I still don’t think this is necessary.”

Lance rolled his eyes, not that Keith saw. “It’s called good hygiene. Now be a good boy and let me take your clothes off.”

Stunned and spluttering at the other’s very suggestive choice of words, Keith barely put up a fight as Lance helped slide off the black body suit. The red paladin forced himself not to look when Lance began to strip as well. It was so tempting to look though. He shivered when Lance scooped him into his arms again and helped him into the water.

“Put your weight on your left leg and hold on to the ledge with your right arm. You good?” Lance hovered close to him even after he had set Keith into the water and thankfully taken his hands of him.

As Lance had promised, the water was warm and soothing, helping to relax Keith’s sore muscles. He took a deep breath in, letting himself float a little. His foot barely touched the bottom though, and he had to hold onto the ledge tightly with one arm to keep his head above water. “This is nice.”

“See? Water is great,” Lance smirked. “Like me.”

Keith groaned, splashing in his direction. “You are awful.”

The blue paladin chuckled, unfazed as ever. “Yeah, sure. Want me to wash your hair?”

“No, no, I think I can get it.” He really didn’t, but the last thing he needed was Lance coming closer and touching him. “We don’t even have soap.”

“You think the Lions have sleeping bags and medkits, but no soap?” Lance laughed as he gracefully swam to lean against the ledge next to Keith. He handed him a small bottle of liquid soap. “You really think you can clean yourself without help?”

“Yeah.” The red paladin snatched at the bottle in Lance’s hand, nearly slipping and accidentally putting pressure on his injured leg. He hissed and went back to clinging to the wall. “Okay, maybe not.”

Lance smiled, a teasing light twinkling in his eyes. “Told you. Now just relax and lean back.” He moved around behind Keith, easing Keith’s head down to wet his hair. Gently, he began to massage the soap into the dark locks. As the fingers worked over his scalp, Keith felt like he was melting into Lance’s hands. It felt so _good,_ he would have had a hard time believing Lance had never done this before. “Lean back again, I’m gonna rinse it out.”

He had assumed it would be done after Lance had washed his hair, but boy was Keith wrong. The blue paladin produced a washcloth from somewhere and began to wipe the rest of the shorter teen’s body, starting from his shoulders and making his way lower. For the most part, Lance stuck to Keith’s back, which he was very grateful for, but by the time Lance was halfway down his back, he realized that it wasn’t that much of blessing.

 _Don’t get hard, don’t get hard, don’t get hard,_ he repeated to himself, eyes squeezing shut in concentration. His hand was gripping the rock ledge so tightly, his knuckles were turning white.

“Keith, you okay? You’re really tense.” Lance was worried about him, the cloth pausing on his lower back. A hand came to rest on his hip, nearly drawing a whimper from Keith’s lips. _Why was he so affected by the Cuban boy?_ “Are you in pain?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Do you want to get out?”

“No!” The response was too quick and sharp, but the idea of Lance lifting him out of the water in the ‘state’ that he was in at that moment was nearly enough to send him into a panic. “I mean, I think I’ll stay here for a while. You can get out if you want.” _Please do._

Lance moved, but only to get _closer,_ his chest nearly brushing against Keith’s back. Which meant that something else was also very close to touching him. If Keith moved back an inch, he’d be pressed up against a very naked Lance. The thought sent his mind spiraling down into a haze.

“Lance.” Keith could barely think, barely breathe. He took his hand off the ledge, allowing Lance’s hold on his waist to support him. For a moment, he was frozen, indecisive, but he was never one to hesitate long. The red paladin took hold of the hand that held the cloth and brought it around to his front, pressing it flat against his stomach. _Shit, am I really going to do this?_ He asked himself. He was beyond terrified of how Lance would react.

“Keith? What are you-oh.” Before Lance could finish the question, Keith moved his hand down, forcing it brush along his hardened length. A strangled gasp escaped his lips before he could stop it. “Oh, God.”

“Lance, please.” He was begging, but it was all he could do. He needed this, needed Lance to touch him. For a heart stopping moment, he thought that Lance would pull away, but then the other hesitantly began to wrap his long fingers around him. “Ah.”

Lance’s voice was low and soft against his ear. “Are you sure?”

The red paladin nodded, unable to speak as Lance began to stroke him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to finish the smutty part in this but it's hella late and I'm very tired so you'll all have to wait until tomorrow. Goodbye~


	10. Relaxing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith help each other... relax

Keith let his head fall back onto Lance’s shoulder with a groan. The taller teen had an arm wrapped around his waist to keep him from slipping under the water as the other steadily stroked his cock. Small sounds were pouring out of Keith’s lips until he brought his hand up to muffle himself, embarrassed at how pathetic he sounded. The blue paladin frowned at that, having been enjoying hearing Keith in such a state, but didn’t protest, keeping his focus on making Keith feel good.

Of course, making Keith feel good was making _Lance_ feel good as well, and with how close their bodies were, it was only a matter of time before Keith realized it.

He turned his head slightly, kissing at Keith’s exposed neck. The red paladin’s back arched with a whine. Lance continued the action, kissing and sucking as Keith’s breathing became heavier and heavier. His hips jerked back suddenly to accidentally grind against Lance. The Cuban boy let out a choked gasp.

“Lance, you-“ Keith was struggling to form words properly. “You’re hard.”

“Well, you look really hot right now,” he grumbled, nipping at Keith’s earlobe. “Don’t worry about it.”

“But-ah- you should feel good too.” Keith tried to reach behind him to grab Lance, but his arm was too short.

After a few failed brushes of Keith’s fingers on his dick, Lance snapped, spinning Keith around without warning. He pulled Keith’s uninjured leg up to hook around his waist and pressed the dark haired boy against the smooth edge of the pool, holding him there. This left their crotches pressed against each other and Lance wrapped around the both of them, moaning at feeling of another cock pressed against his. He would later brag about how he was larger than Keith, but at the moment, he cared about nothing but the pleasurable friction.

Keith buried his face in Lance’s neck, his good arm clinging to the other’s broad shoulders, blunt nails scratching at the sun kissed skin. “Lance, Lance, holy sh _it._ Fuck, it feels so good.” The red paladin continued to babble, repeating Lance’s name repeatedly. “Shit, shit, Lance, I’m close. I’m so close, fuck. _Please.”_ Keith sounded deliciously wrecked, hips thrusting up into Lance’s hand on their own accord.

“Gonna cum for me, Keith?” Lance growled. The hand that was helping hold Keith up squeezed his ass, earning a loud yelp. Unintentionally, Lance’s long fingers moved to press against a tight ring of muscles that had Keith moaning and pushing back against his hand. “Holy shit.”

“Lance,” Keith moaned, voice starting to crack from overuse. “Just a little more…”

The blue paladin moved Keith’s head from where it had been hiding to hungrily press their lips together. He slid his tongue inside to tangle with the other’s while pressing against Keith’s entrance again. The effect was immediate: Keith arched back almost painfully, mouth open but without any sound coming out, while his muscles spasmed. His cock twitched in Lance’s hand, milky whiteness dirtying the clear water.

 _Holy shit,_ was all that came to Lance’s mind as he watched his teammate, his rival turned friend, cum because of him. He continued to stroke Keith through the orgasm while willing his own to hurry up. By the time, the red paladin began whimpering from overstimulation, Lance was _right_ on the edge, needing only a little something more to push him over.

Keith’s arm slid from his shoulder and into the water, nudging away Lance’s hand so he could grip the taller teen’s dick. Lance whimpered at someone else touching him, briefly wondering if Keith had thought it felt this good before all thoughts were vanishing in a cloud of white pleasure. Somehow, he managed to keep a hold of Keith without dropping him into the water as he came, though it was probably fairly close.

When Lance came down from his high, the two pilots’ had a moment of silence, basking in the afterglow before reality began to set in. Lance’s face scrunched in disgust at the white stuff that was floating in the water between them. “We should get out.”

“Yeah.” Keith couldn’t look Lance in the face, terrified he would see that same disgust turned on _him._

They barely spoke as Lance dried himself off and got dressed and then assisted Keith with doing the same. The walk back to the Red Lion was probably the most awkward Keith had ever felt around the other teen, which was saying something. The entire time since they had left the pool, he had been desperately trying to come up with something to say, a joke to lighten to mood.

Lance was carrying Keith into the Lion’s mouth when they both heard it: the familiar boom of a ship entering the atmosphere. Immediately, Lance backed out of the Lion and both of the boys began to search the sky. For a few tense moments, they feared they would see the familiar purple ships of the Galra but then Keith let out a happy cry, pointing at an oddly shaped white ship that was flying directly towards them.

They were saved. And not a moment too soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a lot better in my head and it's once again kind of short. 
> 
> The next five days will be free days, so who knows what you'll get (I do lol) I swear they're going to sort out their feelings soon


	11. Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith have a talk

Lance was waiting for him the moment Keith came out of the healing pod. The rest of the team was there, except for Shiro, but Keith was struggling to focus on anyone else but the blue paladin. There hadn’t been time for them to talk anything out before he was being ushered into a pod for a couple of hours to speed his recovery.

During that time, Lance had given the team a detailed report of what had happened after going through the wormhole with only the events happening the pool being excluded. Allura had conceded that it had been for the best that Lance had rushed to follow Keith and had skipped the ‘think before you act, we were all worried about you’ speech. The Cuban boy had basked in their attention while Keith was healing, though he couldn’t truly enjoy it for the worry that wiggled in his stomach every time he looked over at the pod Keith was in.

 _Is this how Keith felt I was in there?_ He had been in there for much longer though, and with much more serious injuries. Lance couldn’t imagine how stressed out he would be if Keith was in a similar situation.

He breathed a sigh of relief when the pod opened and Keith stumbled out, a little dazed but fine and healthy, with both arms working again. The blue paladin had rushed forward to catch him but hesitated, wondering if it the rest of the team would think it was weird that suddenly he and Keith were so close. Keith didn’t need help standing though and was quickly swept away to get a snack while being caught up on what happened after he’d gone through the wormhole.

“We already said this to Lance, but we’re sorry we couldn’t come after you immediately,” Allura said. “There was still the Galra ship to deal with and we only had two lions. During one of the attacks, the long range sensors were damaged so we couldn’t find the lions until they were repaired. We came as soon as we could.”

Keith nodded, only half listening. Lance was sitting on the edge of the table in front of him, just about where Keith had sat when Lance had been hurt. _Wonder what he’d say if I said I forgot our little bonding moment,_ he thought, still bitter. There was no forgetting for Keith though. Every moment of it seemed to be etched into the very surface of his brain.

Finally, the rest of the team began to drift off as they began to head back to Olaer. Finally, only Lance remained. The two paladins stayed silent for a while, neither daring to speak or having any idea of what to say once they mustered up the courage. “Keith.”

The red paladin looked up at him, overjoyed that he wouldn’t have to speak first. “Yeah, Lance?”

“H-how are you feeling?” Lance asked, playing with his hands. Slouched shoulders and lip biting replaced the normal confident posture and brilliant smiles.

 _Damn it._ “I’m fine. Are you okay?”

“Just peachy.”

“Good.” Another silence set in and Keith wanted to stab himself in the face with the spoon he had eaten his food goo with. Tired of waiting for Lance to bring it up, he took a deep breath and spoke at the same time Lance did.

“I think I like you.”

“I want to stay friends.”

Lance’s eyes went wide as he processed what Keith had said, going very still and pale. Pain flickered in his eyes and for a moment, the red paladin thought he might cry. Instead he straightened up a bit more, a mask hiding his true emotions. “Oh. I-Sorry I misinterpreted what was going on. Just forget what I said.” His voice wavered at the end. Lance ducked his head to hide his face, walking quickly towards the door.

Keith launched himself out of his chair and into Lance’s bath, grabbing his arms to hold him still. “Wait, Lance, I- You-” The words weren’t coming out. The shorter teen was close enough to see how watery Lance’s eyes had become and how tense his body was from the effort of holding it in. Without thinking, he leaned in to press his lips against Lance’s.

Immediately he was shoved away. “What the fuck, Keith?” Lance shouted, sadness shifting into anger. “You say you don’t like me and then you just go and kiss me _again?”_

“I’m sorry!” Keith shrieked. “I didn’t mean to. You just looked so sad.” Lance grabbed a fistful of Keith’s shirt, face getting closer to shout at the other paladin again, but was stopped short when Keith kissed him again. This one lasted longer; Lance melting into it briefly before slowly pulling back.

“What are you doing to me, Keith?” There were tears in Lance’s eyes again, ready to spill over.

“I’ve been asking that longer than you, so I deserve an answer first. What you’re doing to me, I mean.” Keith sighed and ran a hand through his hair at Lance’s confused look. “I never said I didn’t like you, you know. I just didn’t want to lose you as a friend because of… what happened.”

Lance stared at him, mouth open in shock. “So you do like me?”

The red paladin hesitated to answer, watching doubt growing in Lance’s eyes. “I don’t know. I thought that I was just kind of attaching to you because Shiro was gone, but now I’m not so sure.”

“So I was a replacement for Shiro?” Lance’s voice was cold as he stepped back.

Keith held onto him, the icy tone sending him into panic. “No, no, of course not. I just, just, fuck, I don’t know! I just know that I want to keep you close and safe and I want to be around you a lot and it’s just easy? And fun? Is that liking someone?” It came out in a rush, tears stinging the corners of Keith’s eyes by the end.

The taller teen’s expression softened into something fond. “Oh, Keith. You’re really awful at expressing yourself, aren’t you?”

“Not all of us are so gifted at talking,” Keith retorted with a pout. “And I wasn’t sure what I was trying to express, so shut up.”

Lance chuckled and the irritation flowed out of Keith. “How about this: let’s go on a date and we’ll see how we feel about each other after that, okay? And no matter what the outcome is, we’ll still be friends.”

“You promise?”

“I mean, it might take a bit to get back to normal if things don’t, you know, work out,” Lance admitted, scratching his neck, “but I think we’ll be okay.”

“Okay.”

The blue paladin beamed. “Great. As soon as we get back to Olaer, be prepared to have your ass wine and dined off. See you then.” He breezed out the room, humming happily under his breath.

Keith rested a palm over his heart, concerned out how quickly it was beating. Maybe Coran had messed up and missed healing some sort of weird heart condition?

As long as he lived long enough to get through his date with Lance, Keith was fine with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I somehow wrote this in an hour. Idk how or if it's good, but here you are. pls leave a comment if you liked it, they're very appreciated


	12. Rescues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Voltron helps some rebels (and they help them back)

“Paladins,” Allura said over the intercom, “we’ll begin orbiting Olaer in a moment. Proceed to the pod to go down to the surface.”

Keith felt a spike of anxiety at the order as he left his room. Arriving on Olaer meant he would be going on his date with Lance. While he liked hanging out with the blue paladin and definitely enjoyed kissing him, he wasn’t sure what exactly to do on a date, or what Lance was expecting him to do. What if he messed up and Lance hated him? And for all his promises that Lance would stay his friend, the other just couldn’t do it?

He lost Shiro. He couldn’t lose Lance too.

Hunk and Pidge were already waiting by the pod when he arrived. They had most likely been working on something in Green’s hangar, so they were closer. “Hey, Galra Keith,” Hunk greeted with a grin. “Have a nice nap?”

Rather than sleeping, Keith had spent the last hour lying on his bed, trying not to think about Lance while thinking about Lance. It had left him more exhausted than before. He smiled at the yellow paladin. “Yeah. It was nice not having Lance chattering my ear off for once.”

“Hey!” Lance’s indignant cry made them jump. The Cuban teen marched across the room. “Don’t insult me behind my back. And please, Keith, we both know you love the melodious tones of voice.”

“Well, they do make me feel tired, so I guess.” He yawned, completely by accident, but it had Hunk nearly doubling over in laughter. Lance pouted at him, crossing his arms and looking pointedly away. Keith smiled. It wasn’t necessarily untrue. Lance’s voice could be really soothing and nice to fall asleep to, but usually the other was so loud and bright it made it nearly impossible. Either way, Keith enjoyed it, though he would never willingly admit it to a certain blue paladin.

Suddenly, the alarms began to blare. Allura’s voice came over the loudspeaker once more. “Paladins, to the lions! We received a message from an incoming fleet of rebel ships. They’re under attack and require assistance.”

“Man, the Galra are not giving us a break, are they?” Hunk said as they began to jog to the lion bays. “Try not to go through another wormhole, okay, Keith?”

“If I do, promise to come save me. Lance can’t cook.”

“Keith!”

Hunk laughed again. “Man, Galra Keith really is way funnier than Human Keith. See you later!” He disappeared into Yellow’s hangar.

“I took care of you when you were hurt, and now you’re being mean to me,” Lance grumbled, bumping Keith’s shoulder. “Galra Keith is awful.”

“Don’t call me Galra Keith.”

“Hunk calls you Galra Keith!”

“That’s Hunk, not you.”

“Awful!” Lance shouted as they entered their lions. “You’re an awful person, Keith. So mean. And I did so much for you.”

Pidge’s irritated voice came over the speaker now. “Would you two mind keeping your little lover’s quarrel down? We’re on a mission.”

“It’s not a lover’s quarrel,” Keith said.

“Pidge, shh. I’m trying to listen. This better than any soap opera I’ve ever seen.”

There were two annoyed cries of “Hunk” as the lions launched into space. The rebel fleet was on the verge of being completely surrounded by a much larger Galran force. Lance frowned, unsure of how they were going to get through this without Voltron. _Now would be a wonderful time for Shiro to show up._

“Ships from Olaer will be joining you momentarily,” Allura informed. “There aren’t many but once the rebel ships are close enough to the planet, the planet’s defense system should be able to protect them. Your goal is to protect the rebels, not defeat the Galra.”

“It may also be of interest that the ships will require at least ten minutes to be within range of the planet’s defenses,” Coran added. “Provided that the Galra does not slow them down.”

“Alright, guys. Any plans?” Keith asked.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in charge?” Hunk asked. “You came up with a plan last time.”

The Galra fighter ships had already begun to approach them. “Guys, we just have to keep the Galra busy,” Lance said. “They’ll focus more on us because of the lions, so try to keep your distance from the rebel ships and the Galra should follow. We just have to keep their attention on us.”

“So be annoying?” Hunk clarified.

“Be Lance,” Keith said.

“Keith! Really?” Lance blasted several ships with the freeze ray of his lion. “Why are you like this? When did you get a sense of humor and why is it always about me?”

“Guys, focus on the bad guys,” Pidge reminded them. “Less talk, more fighting.”

Hunk chuckled as he slammed into one of the larger ships, denting it badly. “But if we’re being Lance right now, we’d _have_ to talk.”

“Hunk, when we get back to the castle, I’m going to have another lecture on the bro code just for you.”

“The bro code?”

“Paladins!” Allura interjected. “You are in the middle of a battle. Please, focus on it.”

“Sorry, Allura,” Lance said. The blue lion’s movements became more directed as he shot at a couple ships before darting away towards the edge of the fight, drawing several of the Galra after him. It was difficult for Keith to not constantly go for the kill while fighting, but soon enough they had all adapted to the strategy, allowing the rebel ships to continue moving towards the planet relatively unhindered.

And then the Galra began firing the ion cannon.

They would later learn that the rebels had devised and implanted a virus that would stop the Galra from being able to use the cannon. Unfortunately, the Galra hadn’t taken too long to figure it out and fix the problem. The first shot damaged one of the last ships of the rebel fleet, taking out its engines. Two of the other rebel ships turned back to tow it, but that only put them in the lion of fire once more.

“We could really use Voltron right now,” Hunk said, slamming into the ion cannon as hard as he could. It barely did anything and the cannon was still fully functional. “I don’t know how we’re going to get out this.”

“Damn it,” Keith muttered, desperately trying to think of something. _What would Shiro do?_ Something big and black shot past him suddenly, sending a Galra ship spinning away into space. “What the-? Is that the black lion?”

“Who’s flying it?” Lance asked. The lion attached itself to the ship being towed, tearing a hole in the hull. “Wait, is Shiro on that ship?”

“Nah, that’d be way too much of a coincidence,” Hunk said. His voice was hopeful though.

There was a moment of silence over the coms as everyone stared at the Black Lion. Even the Galra seemed frozen at that moment. The Lion lifted off the ship, movements slow and sluggish. “Hey, guys.”

“SHIRO!” The four paladins plus two aliens shouted at once, each with varying levels of confusing and happiness. Immediately, there was a jumble of questions about where he had been and what happened, but the black paladin quickly cut them off.

“We’ll talk about this later, but for now, we have some Galra butt to kick. Form Voltron!”

After that, fighting seemed almost too easy. Hunk’s large cannon made quick work of the many Galra ships, and the sword easily sliced through the ion cannon and the ship it was attached to. They were incredibly in sync with each other. Shiro barely had to say an order before it was already being done. In less than five minutes, they were surrounded by the wreckage left of the Galra fleet and the mostly intact rebel ships.

They separated and went back to the ship. The younger paladins sprinted to the black lion, in a way that they all felt was eerily familiar, but had a much happier ending. One that was filled with hugs and laughter. Allura arrived a few seconds later to leap onto the pile of paladins that had formed, laughing in delight at seeing Shiro alive and well.

“If this is what I get, maybe I should go missing more often,” the man said with laugh. The statement was met with angry glares and a few threats. “Maybe not. But you won’t believe what I found when I was gone.” Shiro turned back to the black lion. “Get out here!”

“That’s a hostile alien environment. There’s no way I’m going out there.” From the mouth of the lion emerged a short man with familiar brown hair and glasses. “They tackled you, Shiro. Do you know how many bones I would break if that happened to-Oof!” Pidge had launched herself into Matt’s arms, burying her face in his chest. “Why this gremlin hugging me?”

“Shut up, you asshole.” Pidge’s voice was muffled from Matt’s shirt, but Lance thought that she was for sure crying.

Matt softened as he wrapped his arms around her. “I’m glad to see you too, Katie.”

“Aw, look at all the family reunions,” Hunk said, sniffling. He put a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Maybe we should hug too, bro.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Dude, you broke the bro code. I’m not hugging you.”

“But bro…”

“No can do, bro.”

“You can’t break the bro code,” Matt interjected. “The bro code is life, my dudes.”

The blue paladin beamed at the newest member of Team Voltron, eyes twinkling. “Oh, this is going to be _great.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is awful and late, I'm sorry. But hey, Shiro and Matt!


	13. Partys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a celebration

“I have no idea how it happened, honestly,” Shiro explained over a small meal prepared by the Olaerians. “One moment I was in the Black Lion and the next I was on some rebel ship with Matt.”

“He fell on top of me while I was sleep to be specific,” Matt added, giving Shiro a slightly annoyed glance.

“I don’t think you were actually asleep though.” The older Holt sibling grew red. “Anyways, I started helping out the rebels. The Galra arm really came in handy and we were able to upload the virus that would disable their weapons array for a short time, but then we ended up getting chased…”

“And then we saved you,” Lance said.

Keith rolled his eyes. “I’m pretty sure that without Shiro we would’ve lost.”

“Shush, Keith. You’re just annoyed that my plan was working and you couldn’t think of anything.”

“Hardly.”

“Guys, please.” Shiro smiled fondly at the two of them. “Try to get along.”

Hunk looked up from the dessert thing he’d been eating. “Actually they’ve been getting along pretty well since you disappeared. No arguments at all. It was kind of weird to be honest.”

“We argued!” Lance protested. “There was that one about- about- Keith, you tell them!”

The red paladin shrugged. “Now that I think about it we actually haven’t argued recently. I mean, we aren’t always _nice,_ but we didn’t argue over anything.”

Pidge snorted. “We just had to get rid of Shiro for a bit for the right side of Voltron to bond.”

“Technically we bonded that time Lance almost got blown up, but whatever.” Keith glanced over at Lance. “You know, the one that Lance _forgot.”_

Lance scowled, opening his mouth to protest before he realized that everyone thought that he did forget it. “Told you, that didn’t happen. It’s not a bonding moment if half the people involved aren’t aware of the bonding moment.” He turned his head so he wouldn’t have to look at Keith’s smug face. _When did it become a thing for him to tease me?_

“Well, anyways, I’m very glad that you’re safe and back with us, Shiro,” Allura said. “And it’s even better that Matt is here as well. Let’s try to not to be separated from now on.”

“Hello, Paladins, Princess, and Matt,” Coran said as he walked into the room. Matt glanced at Shiro as if to ask if this ginger alien was actual a real thing. “I’ve come with some exciting news. To celebrate the defeat of Zarkon and the victory of Voltron today, they have decided to throw a party in our honor.”

“A party?” Lance asked, blue eyes shining with excitement. “When? Where? What are we going to wear? Is it like a party party, or like a formal party?”

“Tonight, downstairs, you may choose from what the Olaerians provide and what’s on the castle, and I am not sure what sort of party, but I believe there shall be dancing.” Coran smiled. “Any more questions?”

“No.” Lance was practically shaking in his seat. “This is fantastic.”

“I’m glad you’re all happy about this party.” A quick glance around the table showed more annoyed or grossed out faces than happy ones, but Coran chose to ignore that. “I believe that the Olaerians have already delivered formal clothing to your rooms. Shiro, Matt, if you will follow me, I will you show you where you’ll be staying while we are one the planet.”

“Aren’t we going to leave?” Keith asked Allura as the two humans were led away. “I mean, we came here to find the rebels and Matt, and now we’ve found them and Shiro.”

Allura shook her head. “There are still many things that need to be settled between us and the rebel group, as well as information that needs to be shared. Most likely we will be here for a few more days.”

“So there’s no chance of us leaving before the party?” Pidge asked.

“No.”

Pidge and Keith both mumbled curses under their breath.

“C’mon, guys this is going to be fun. When was the last time we went to a party?”

“Back on Arus, I think,” Hunk offered. “Unless you count that dinner one the mermaid planet, but it was just us two so…”

“Exactly, we’re long overdue for some fun.”

Keith scoffed. “You may want to remember that the last party we went to, you nearly died and the Galra almost took the ship.”

“Well, we’ll be more careful this time.” Lance stood up. “Now let’s see what passes for fashion on this planet.”

~

The large hall was full of color and light and people and it made Keith want to flee back to his room. He stood half hidden in a corner with his arms crossed, glaring at anyone who dared to look in his direction. He hadn’t seen any of the other paladins yet, and the thought that they had been smart and skipped out kept crossing his mind.

Just then, a small figure dressed in green sidled up to him, looking as awkward and uncomfortable as he was. “I hate this,” Pidge muttered. “But the food’s pretty good. Here.” She held out a small plate filled with little desserts.

“Have you seen anyone else yet?” he asked, taking something that looked a lot like a cupcake.

“I happened to see a bit of Lance when he was getting ready. I saw a _lot_ of him actually.” Pidge’s face crinkled in disgust at the memory. “I just wanted my headphones back.”

Keith hummed, dark eyes scanning the room. He spotted the brilliant white of Allura’s long hair and then Shiro beside her. They were busy talking to one of the Olaerians, mostly likely an official of some sort. A little ways away near the food table, Hunk was excitedly talking to Matt who looked a little overwhelmed, but interested. The red paladin sighed, wondering how much longer he had to be here before he could sneak out.

And then he saw a flash of bright blue.

Lance certainly found something he liked. Nearly impossible tight pants encased his legs, except where they were ripped, showing off strips of tan skin. In contrast, his blue shirt was loose, hanging off one shoulder and flowed around his midriff. It was almost long enough to completely cover his stomach, but whenever he moved, it would flutter up, showing even more skin.

Keith gulped.

“Oh, hey, it’s Lance,” Pidge remarked dryly. “I was wondering why you were drooling.”

“I’m not drooling.” Keith glared at her. “I barely even noticed him.”

“Uh huh.” She dropped the now empty plate into a waste bin. “Well, I think I’m gonna go bug my brother. You should ask Lance to dance.”

“I don’t dance,” Keith huffed. She didn’t hear him as she disappeared into the crowd. “And I wouldn’t want to dance with _him_ anyways.”

He stayed in that corner for a while after that. His eyes drifted all across the room, but for some reason they kept landing on a certain blue paladin as he danced with what seemed like every single person in that room. He even managed to get Pidge out there for a moment. Everyone except for Keith that was. Lance hadn’t even come over to speak to him yet. _Because you’re in a corner and avoiding any social contact,_ he reasoned with himself. It didn’t stop him from feeling bitter though.

Pidge slipped out after an hour, quietly followed by a tired looking Shiro a little after that. Matt and Hunk were surrounded by a group of rebel soldiers, trading stories and advice.  And Lance… was still dancing somehow. It was like he could keep going forever. The brilliant smile on his face and the way his eyes lit up every time a new song came on was nearly as captivating as the smooth and graceful movements of his body.

It shouldn’t be possible that someone could look that good and have that much time while dancing. It _wasn’t_ possible, and yet there, Lance was, doing the impossible.

Bored with standing a corner after another hour or more, Keith decided it was time to call it a night and started heading towards the door. Halfway there, a hand grabbed his wrist. “Keith! Come dance with me!”

“What? No!” Keith protested as he was being dragged to the center of the dance floor. “Lance, I really don’t dance. Just let me-“ The red paladin tried to pull away but Lance refused to let go.

“C’mon, Mullet. Anyone can dance. Just follow me.” He took Keith’s hands in his, trying to get the other to move, yet Keith remained as stiff and still as a board. “Just listen to the music and let go.”

“Let go of what?”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Everything. Just move and be yourself.”

“I don’t think I can.”

That earned him another eye roll. “Here.” His hands rested on Keith’s waist now, forcing him to sway to the heavy beat of the music. “Get out of your head for a moment. You’re good at fighting, so you have the coordination for this, don’t worry.”

Keith tried to pull away again, eyes darting to the faces around them. “Lance, I really can’t do this.”

“Hey.” Lance was leaning in closer now so he didn’t have to speak as loud. “Look at me and only me.” He guided Keith’s hands to wrap around his neck as the song changed to something slower and more sensual. They slowly swayed back and forth and Keith could feel himself beginning to relax into it. “See? You can do this. Nothing to worry about.”

“We’re not really doing anything though.”

“It’s more than you were doing before, so shh. One step at a time.” Lance chuckled. “I’ll give you some dance lessons some other time.”

“Please don’t.”

“Oh, you’re not getting away without learning how to dance. I won’t let you.” Lance chuckled, face moving the tiniest bit closer so their foreheads pressed together. “You know we still have to go on that date.”

“Can’t this be the date?”

Lance frowned. “I’ve barely seen you all evening, since someone decided to go all emo on me and lurk in the shadows for the past few hours.”

The red paladin looked off to the side, face growing hot. “Well, it doesn’t have to end now.”

“You going to dance with me all night?”

“No.”

“Then what do you propose we do?”

“I don’t know.” They continued to sway until the song changed to something a little faster.

With a smirk, Lance pulled Keith so their bodies were pressed tightly together and then began _moving._ Keith’s breath caught in his throat as he felt the other sliding against him, so perfectly timed to the music. Hands smoothed up his back over his shirt before sliding back down and then a little further to rest on his butt. “You sure you don’t want to keep dancing with me, Keith?” Lance purred into his ear.

Shivering, Keith pulled back. “Holy fuck, Lance.” Lance’s smirk grew, that teasing look twinkling in his eyes. “I think I know what I want to do.”

“Yeah?”

Keith pulled Lance off the dance floor and out of the room without another word. He continued down a few hallways until he was sure no one was in the immediate area before shoving Lance against a wall, mouths colliding. It was messy and rough, with teeth clanking and spit everywhere, but it was _so good._ Lance rolled them around so Keith was the one against the wall. Between desperate kisses, he muttered “Thought we were gonna wait until after the date to decide if this kissing thing was going to keep going.”

“I also said I wasn’t sure if I liked you or if I was being clingy because Shiro was gone, but Shiro’s back and I still want you so fucking much,” Keith growled back before pulling Lance back down for another searing kiss.

 _Good enough for me,_ Lance decided upon hearing the confession. He reached down to grab under Keith’s thighs, pulling him up so the shorter could wrap his legs around his waist. “In that case, how bout we take this upstairs?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to get the chapter I'm behind on up this week, but I have no idea when. Wish me luck and I hope you're enjoying this.
> 
> Sexy times are next~


	14. Upstairs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance go upstairs ;)

Lance wasn’t strong enough to carry Keith all the way to the elevator, to his chagrin, but they made it their quickly. He had the shorter pressed against the wall before the doors had even closed, claiming his lips eagerly and forcing a leg between Keith’s.

He was still reeling from the turn of events. Lance had just wanted to dance with Keith once before the red paladin snuck away. Just one innocent dance and then he would wait until their date to even think about doing anything more, but then _Keith_ had gone and suggested they could have their then. _Keith_ had been the one to pull them out of the room and started making out.

This was all Keith’s fault.

Keith let out a soft groan as Lance’s hands wandered up the back of his shirt. His fingers ventured over skin that was far too smooth to be fair and the bony bumps of Keith’s spine that stood out just a little too much. Before Lance could get any farther, the doors opened and Keith was forcing him out.

“Yours or mine?” the red paladin asked.

Lance giggled. “That sounds so dirty.” He pecked Keith’s lips and stared walking them towards his own room. Keith smiled, keeping up the kiss. They stumbled across the room to fall on the bed with Keith below Lance. “What a klutz.”

“Shut up,” Keith growled. He grabbed Lance by the neck and pulled him down for a heated kiss, tongues tangling together. They moved farther up onto the bed until Lance could comfortably straddle Keith’s hips. Hands made their way under clothes as they continued making out.

The blue paladin pulled back, panting as he sat up. With a smirk, he crossed his arms in front of him and pulled off his shirt, showing off a flawless expanse of sun-kissed skin. Despite having seen Lance shirtless many times before, Keith found himself blushing and entranced with the sight. “Fuck,” he breathed out, reaching out to touch but hesitating a few inches before he did, unsure of himself.

“Like what you see?” Lance chuckled. He wrapped a hand around Keith’s wrist and guided it forward to press against him.

Keith felt like he could hardly breathe. Lance was there, on top of him, shirtless and letting him touch him. He stared up at Lance, beautiful blue eyes meeting his as the Cuban boy smiled fondly down at him. “Lance. Lance, c’mere.”

Lance leaned down to hover over him, waiting to see what Keith wanted. “Keith?”

“I-“ The words couldn’t seem to find their way out of his throat, choking him. “Lance, I-I-” The harder he tried, the harder it was to speak or even draw in a breath.

The look in Lance’s eyes changed from lust to concerned as he brought up a hand to cup Keith’s cheek. “Keith? Hey, Keith, what’s wrong?”

Panic started to fully set in as Keith began to hyperventilate, still unable to draw in enough oxygen. Tears welled up in his eyes as he grasped at Lance above him, desperate for something to hold on to. Lance sat up and quickly rearranged their positions so Keith was sitting in front of him with plenty of room.

“Keith, Keith, just focus on breathing okay? Breathe with me.” Lance began taking calm deep breathes and Keith _tried_ to follow along, but it was so hard. “You’re okay. You’re safe. There’s nothing to worry about.” The blue paladin kept murmuring reassuring words as he stroked Keith’s hair, slowly bringing Keith into his chest as the short teen began to calm down again.

“I’m sorry,” Keith said, voice gravelly.

“It’s fine.” Lance pressed a kiss to his head. “It’s not your fault.” He let a few moments of silence pass by. “Do you have panic attacks a lot?”

“Not lately. I used to have them at the Garrison a lot. Mostly when I had to deal with a lot of people at once.”

“Oh. So then when we were dancing-“

“I kinda started to have one then, yeah.” Keith nuzzled his face into Lance’s chest. “You helped though. I guess I was just generally anxious and it got a little much when we were…”

“Aw, did seeing me shirtless overwhelm you?” Lance teased.

“Shut up.”

Lance laughed. “Cute. You’re so cute, Keith.” He smiled when Keith yawned. “Want to go to bed?”

“Kind of.” Keith started to get up and Lance hung on to keep him in place. “What are you doing?”

“Sleep in here tonight.” Lance pouted, giving Keith his best puppy eyes. “Pretty please?”

The red paladin rolled his eyes. “I was planning to. I just wanted to get changed first.” He hesitated for a moment before pecking Lance’s lips. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“’Kay.” Once he left, Lance went about his nightly routine in record time, sliding into bed before Keith had the chance to come back. He laid there in the dark, thinking about how Keith had reacted. _I rushed him._

The door open and Keith slipped inside, quietly padding his way over to the bed. There was dip and then Keith was cautiously resting his head on Lance’s chest. Every movement was slow and careful as if he was afraid Lance would push him away. Lance urged him to be a little closer and then they were still.

“Lance?”

Keith’s voice was barely audible and he sounded exhausted.

“Yeah, Keith?”

“How did you know how to take care of… the panic attack?”

“My sister used to get them all the time. I was usually the one closest, so I ended up helping her through them a lot.” He winced mentally at the small lie. “Hunk’s had a couple too, usually around finals or important tests. He can usually talk himself through them though. It’s kinda funny to listen to.”

“Is it?” Keith’s voice was faint and his breathing was beginning to even out.

Lance smiled at the dark outline that was Keith. Maybe one day he’ll admit that it was his sister who helped him through the panic attacks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt like it was too soon for them to have sex, but then I remembered that they had that moment in the pond??? Idk but there'll be actual smut later on, no worries


	15. Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro has some questions for Keith

Lance woke up to the bedroom door shutting early the next morning. He opened his eyes expecting to be alone, but was surprised to see Keith making his way back to the bed. “You know there’s a bathroom in here, right?” He mumbled.

The red paladin jerked, having not realized Lance was awake. “Yeah, I know.” He slid under the covers and pressed against Lance.

“What were you doing then?” Lance asked, eyes falling closed again.

“Checking on Shiro.”

“He’s not going to just disappear,” the taller boy reminded him gently.

“I know.” Keith buried his face in Lance’s chest. “I just had to be sure. Go back to sleep.”

The blue paladin nuzzled his nose into Keith’s hair. “You sleep,” he grumbled.

Keith dozed off, occasionally mumbling something unintelligible in his sleep. Lance smiled each time he did. The room gradually grew brighter as the sun rose. Around what Lance guessed to be nine in the morning, the boy sleeping on his chest woke up again, blinking blearily up at him. “Lance? Did you sleep?”

“How could I with you snoring like that?” Lance teased. Keith scowled at him, rolling out of the bed. “Wait, come back. You’re warm.”

“We should get up. Breakfast is probably soon.”

“It’s probably over, so come back here.” Lance whined, giving Keith his best puppy eyes. The red paladin was unaffected. “Fine, have it your way.” He got out of bed and headed for the dresser that held his clothes. Without thinking, he pulled out an outfit and started getting changed.

Keith nearly shrieked, “What are you doing?”

“Getting dressed?”

“But I’m still in here.”

“And?” Lance chuckled. “Keith, I have five siblings. Modesty has no meaning to me.”

The red paladin crossed his arms, looking away. “Well it does to me.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “So leave. I’ll see you there.”

When the other didn’t move, he looked at him curiously. “I kinda wanted to go together,” Keith admitted.

“Oh. Well, get dressed and meet me back here then. Or I’ll come find you.” Lance ignored the redness he felt spreading across his cheeks. “I promise I won’t take too long.” Keith nodded and left the room. “Dammit. Who let him be that cute?”

~

“Ooh, the lovebirds have arrived,” Pidge announced as soon as Keith and Lance walked into the dining area. “You know I was thinking about it, and we could just refer to them as Klance.”

“Oh, gosh, a ship name. That’s fantastic.” Hunk agreed.

Lance glared at the two of them. “Shup up. We’re not _lovebirds._ We barely manage to be friends.” The protest was met only with knowing looks.

The two sat down in the only seats available, which were right next to each other. Once the conversation had moved on to something other than the right side of Voltron, Keith leaned over to whisper into Lance’s ear, “What’s a ship name?”

“I’ll explain later. Basically, Pidge is insulating we’re dating,” Lance answered, careful to keep his voice low.

“But why is it all your name and just the ‘K’ from mine?”

“Shush, you’re already enough of an attention hog. Let me have most of the ship name.” Lance became distracted after being asked something by Matt. The two of them had somehow become fast friends, even though Keith couldn’t think of _when_ they had had the chance to really talk before. But then again, Lance was the master at making friends.

Shiro, sitting on Keith’s other side, casually said, “We should train together today. Since we haven’t had time to really catch up.” Keith nodded without thinking before he caught a familiar twinkle in Shiro’s eye. The black paladin knew something and he wouldn’t stop digging until he found out he was right. _Great._

~

“You alright, Keith?” Shiro asked after the second round of hand to hand combat. The older man had sent Keith flying across the mat twice, something that had rarely occurred during their training. Unless Keith was distracted. “You’re usually more of a challenge.”

Keith huffed as he got to his feet. “I’m out of practice. Let’s go again.”

“Maybe we should take a moment and make sure you don’t have anything distracting you before I kick your butt again.” Shiro laughed as he plopped down on the mat and patted the space in front of him. “Sit.” Keith sat. “Now talk. What’s going on between you and Lance?”

“Nothing at all,” Keith answered, eyes wandering around the room. “We’re just friends.”

Shiro stared at him, not believing him for a second. “Uh-huh. Because your _friends_ can just casually get you to dance. Because you always liked sharing a bed with you _friends._ Keith, please. You cringe at even hearing the word dance, let alone enjoying dancing with someone the way Lance was. And you don’t even like having people near your room when you sleep. So tell me what’s going on between you and Lance.”

The red paladin sighed. “I was tired last night. And I didn’t feel like arguing with Lance so I said I would dance to get him to leave me alone. That’s it.”

“And he also demanded that you sleep in the same bed as him and you were just so _tired_ you didn’t resist?”

“Yup.”

“Keith, you’re the shittiest liar I’ve ever met.” Shiro rubbed his temples with his fingers. “I know you have a crush on Lance. Or at least you did back at the Garrison, but if you’re just going along with what he wants and he’s _using_ you-”

“He isn’t that kind of person,” Keith snapped. “He wouldn’t manipulate anyone just to get what he wants. He’s more selfless than you’d think.”

The taller man tilted his head, curious. “Oh? Is he? And you’d know this how?”

“I-“ Keith flushed brighter red than his lion. He was caught. “Shut up, Shiro.”

“C’mon, give your brother all the juicy details. Have you slept together before? Are you sleeping together or are you _sleeping together?_ ”

Keith stared at him in shock. “Did you just ask if I had sex with Lance?”

“Yeah. Did you?”

“No.”

“Good.” Shiro cleared his throat. “But you two are getting along okay, right? It isn’t like some kind of friends with benefits thing, is it? Because that can end kind of badly and it’d fuck up the whole team dynamic-“

“Is that why you wanted to know so bad? To see if we’d mess up the team?” Keith glared at him. “Lance helped me through those first few days after you disappeared and we got _close._ That is all that you need to know. Bye.” The red paladin got to his feet and marched out of the room, ignoring Shiro’s calls for him to come back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of drama for you. Not sure where I'm going with it, but there you are. I'll probs do a double update over the weekend so I'll be caught back up.


	16. Powerful Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance gives Keith the ability to overcome his overthinking (for a while anyways)

Keith barged into Lance’s room without knocking, immediately spotting the blue paladin sprawled on his bed looking at something on a screen. “Lance, I need you to do something.”

“What is it?” Lance sat up, concerned at Keith’s disheveled state. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Keith cupped Lance’s face in his hands and pulled him in for a kiss. After a minute of insistent liplock, he pulled back to murmur against Lance’s mouth, “I need you to make me stop thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“About- about us ending.” Keith’s hands were shaking and he held onto Lance harder to try and make them stop. “We haven’t started and all I can think about is what if this doesn’t work out and I lose you, and I hate it, but I can’t _stop._ So I need you to make me stop. Please, Lance.”

Lance considered the boy in front of him for a moment, expression neutral as he mulled over the words. In that span of time, Keith began to think that he had really fucked up now and was about to apologize when the blue paladin leaned in and brought their lips together again. This kiss was different than the others, it was more intentional and slow, but not cautious or curious. It was confident and deliberate, and it had Keith’s knees threatening to collapse.

Lance’s tongue slid between Keith’s lips and ever so slowly licked at the roof of Keith’s mouth. A strangled gasp escaped into Lance’s mouth as his knees began to give way. The blue paladin caught him before he fell and quickly switched them around so Keith was sitting on the bed. The kiss continued to methodically destroy any willpower Keith had as Lance carefully laid him back.

“Tell me if you want me to stop, okay?” Lance whispered when he finally moved of Keith’s mouth. He ducked down to Keith’s neck next, mouthing along the Adam’s apple, feeling Keith’s pulse racing against his lips. Pulling down the collar of Keith’s loose workout shirt, Lance licked along a collarbone, pausing for a moment to suck a mark onto it.

“L-Lance,” Keith choked out. His face was red and his bottom lip was growing swollen from him gnawing at it. “Shit.”

The blue paladin smirked, shoving Keith’s shirt up as high as he could. “Am I doing a good job?”

Keith whimpered in response as the other rubbed a finger over a pink nipple. Encouraged by the response, Lance dipped down to tease at it with his tongue, earning a soft moan. Keith tensed, embarrassed, but Lance ignored it to continue toying with one nipple with his fingers and the other with his mouth, switching back and forth until Keith was back to melting into the bed once more.

Satisfied that Keith was now _very_ turned on, Lance began making his way lower, leaving behind a trial of kisses and kiss marks. He ended up on his knees between Keith’s legs, face inches away from the bulge that had formed in Keith’s pants. “Hey, Keithy boy, who’re you feeling? Good?”

“Mm-hmm.” Keith was panting lightly, hips twitching subconsciously. “So good. Lance. Lance, oh my God.” The red paladin sat up part way, staring down at Lance. “You’re going to- oh quiznak.”

“Is that not okay?” Lance asked. He rubbed his hands over Keith’s thighs in a way that he thought would be soothing, but realized it really _wasn’t_ when Keith’s eyes slid partly shut and he had to bit his lip to keep from making some sort of sound. “I won’t if you’re not ready or interested or whatever. I just thought, since you asked me to make you stop thinking…”

Keith shook his head. “It’s just you don’t have to do it because I asked. I don’t want you to think that’s all I’m after.”

“I don’t think that.” Lance leaned up to peck Keith’s lips. “I want to do it because I want to and you want to. That’s all. So do you want me to?” Keith nodded, looking off to the side at the messed up bedspread. “And so do I. See? It’s all good. We both consent and now,” he lowered himself back to the floor, “we can get to the fun part.”

Lance ran a finger up the clothed length, drawing out a gasp from Keith. He hooked his fingers under the waistband of his pants and began pulling them off once Keith lifted his hips. Keith’s underwear went with the pants and ended up pooled around Keith’s ankles until the red paladin kicked them off. Once Keith’s dick was free, it was all Lance could focus on. He’s seen it before at the pond, touched it as well, but this was the first time he was verbally _allowed_ to look and touch, and it made a difference.

Once more, Lance noted that Keith was smaller than him, though not necessarily _small._ It fit the grumpy teen and, considering this was Lance’s first blowjob, the smaller size was a pretty welcome detail. Lance gingerly wrapped a hand around the base, watching as Keith’s body tensed up with pleasure. _Nice_ , he thought to himself. He pumped it a few times to get used to the feeling before bringing his lips to the tip, sucking lightly.

Keith’s reaction was instantaneous. His back arched a fraction off the beg and a rather lewd sound came out of his mouth. Lance took more of the length into his mouth as Keith brought up a hand to muffle himself. It was weird and awkward and Lance couldn’t say he liked the taste of dick, but it wasn’t awful. He got a comfortable rhythm going and worked what he couldn’t fit in his mouth with his hand.

“Shit, _Lance,”_ Keith moaned. A hand tangled into Lance’s hair, not pulling but it was there. “Lance, I’m gonna-fuck. I’m gonna come.”

At the warning, Lance pulled away and picked up the pace with his stroking. He scattered kisses and bites over Keith’s thighs, urging Keith to come. Keith arched off the bed with a loud groan, coming hard onto his stomach. Lance continued to stroke him through it until the red paladin began to whimper from the overstimulation.

“Was that good?” Lance asked. He crawled up to lay beside Keith, watching the teen slowly blink his eyes open. “Do you feel…better?”

Keith nodded, eyes slightly unfocused. “That was great. Thank you.”

Lance laughed. “You’re welcome, Mullet. Now let’s get you cleaned up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some smut for you hurray We are in the empowerment section of the month. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but here's this. I hope you enjoy


	17. Powerful Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith defends Lance and Lance takes comfort in it.

“Lance, come on. There’s gonna be this big lunch with-oh, my.” Hunk stopped in the doorway, staring at the two teens cuddled together on the bed. Keith and Lance stared back at him. “Okay, is someone going to explain?”

“This my boyfriend Keith,” Lance said, pointing at Keith’s face. He beams first at Hunk and then down at a very red paladin. “Isn’t he cute?”

Hunk blinked multiple times, taking a few seconds to fully process the information. “Oookay then. Um, how did that happen? Because we agreed that as best friends we wouldn’t keep secrets. It’s in the bro code. Also, there’s a lunch thing we all have to attend. There’s going to be a bunch of higher ups there, which I’m hoping means really good food.”

“Cool. We’ll be down in a minute.”

The yellow paladin left the room. “When did I become your boyfriend?” Keith asked the moment the door was shut.

Lance kissed the tip of his nose before he slid out of the bed. “When I had your dick in my mouth.” A laugh bubbled out of him when Keith chucked a pillow at him. “I mean, if you don’t want to put a label on our thing, that’s cool. I just didn’t want to have to explain all that to Hunk right then. You know?”

“I don’t mind being your boyfriend,” Keith mumbled. His hands played with the blankets, studiously not looking at the Cuban boy. “Are you going to tell Hunk?”

“Well, yeah, now I kinda have to.” Lance straightened his hair in the mirror. “I mean, I would have anyways, but after we had everything kind of settled first. If you don’t want me to, Hunk would probably understand. He’d be super annoyed about it, but he’d drop it after a while.”

Keith crept up behind him, sliding his hand around Lance’s waist and pressing his cheek between Lance’s shoulderblades. “I don’t mind.”

“Really?”

“Maybe a little? But he is your best friend, so I guess it’s okay. As long as I can talk to Shiro if I want.”

“Deal.” Lance finished fussing with himself and turned around to run his fingers through Keith’s hair. “Ready for lunch?”

“No. Can I skip?”

“Uh-uh.”

“Shit.” He yawned, rubbing at his eyes. “I want to take a nap when we get back though.”

~

“So you and Lance, huh,” Hunk said, casually wandering up next to the red paladin. Keith had been watching Lance entertain a group of girls across the room. Every few moments they would burst into giggles and Keith wanted to go and see just what Lance was saying, but was terrified at the idea of possibly being included in the conversation. “Can’t say I saw that coming.”

“You and me both.” Keith took a sip of whatever drink they were serving. “He probably didn’t either.”

Hunk nodded, mulling it over. “So you like Lance. Romantically.”

“Obviously.”

“Why?”

Keith shrugged. Lance and the girls moved to somewhere else in the room where he couldn’t see them.

The tall engineer snorted, shaking his head. “Galra Keith is just full of jokes. Oh hey, look it’s a wild Pidge. It’s time to go bother this animal.” Hunk patted Keith on the shoulder before walking away.

Watching him, Keith leaned back against a wall, conveniently hidden behind a large potted plant. It gave him a decent view of the room while hiding him. He could just barely hear the sound of Lance’s voice above the general chatter of the room.

“The paladins of Voltron are quite amazing, aren’t they? They’re incredible in battle,” a nearby voice said.

Another one answered, “Oh, yes, I’ve heard they’re all fantastic warriors. The black paladin doesn’t even have a proper weapon. He’s using the arm the Galra gave him against them. Isn’t that something?”

“Yes, but I think the way the red paladin fights with his bayard is so elegant and fierce. Not to mention he’s so very handsome.” Keith flushed red at the unknowing compliment, sinking a little farther into the plant.

“I’ve heard that the green and yellow paladins are both geniuses and capable of dealing with technology they’ve never seen before or building things they need. There’s a rumor that she even built a modification for the green lion that allows it to become invisible.”

The first voice sighed in amazement. “Voltron is really made up of some incredible people. Except that blue one. He never seems to do much besides talk.” The two aliens laughed.

Keith saw red. In a rush, he pushed aside a branch of the plant and stepped up to the two tall alien women who’d been talking. “Lance is an important member of the team,” he growled, glaring at them. “He’s an incredible marksman and he’s capable of thinking around problems faster than the rest of us. Besides that, he’s kind and caring and makes sure the rest of us are okay even if he _isn’t,_ so maybe you should try shutting up before you start talking shit about someone you know nothing about.”

He continued glaring at them until they breathed out a few hurried apologies and practically fled the area, terrified of the fiery paladin. Keith glared at the small group of people that had stopped to stare at him while he was chewing them out.

“You really think that?”

The red paladin turned to find Lance watching him off to the side. His blue eyes appeared to be somewhat more watery than usual. “Ye-yeah. Of course.” Keith’s breath caught his throat as Lance caught him in a tight hug.

“Thank you. I’m really glad.”

“Are you crying?”

“No,” Lance said, voice cracking around the lump in his throat. “This lunch thing is kinda lame. Wanna go get that nap now?”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”


	18. Powerful Reassurances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith begins to accept his Galra side 
> 
> Part One

“Keith~” Lance cooed, tickling Keith’s cheek. “Keith, it’s time to wake up.”

“Fuck off,” Keith mumbled, swiping sleepily at Lance’s hand.

Lance chuckled, brushing Keith’s hair out of his face. “Baby, we can’t spend all day in bed. Let’s go out for a bit.”

The red paladin sat up staring at him. “Did you just call me baby?”

“Yeah,” Lance answered, blushing.

“Oh.” A similar blush began to spread across Keith’s face as well. “Okay. Is- is that going to be a thing now or…”

“Might be. I just wanted to try it out.” Lance pressed a quick kiss to Keith’s lips. “I’m probably going to try out a couple other cute petnames, so be aware. Now, c’mon. Let’s go see more of this alien planet.”

Keith groaned, clinging to Lance’s waist to keep him from standing up. “Why? Let’s just stay here. It’s comfy and nice.”

“A little sun and socialization won’t kill you, Keith.” Lance won the fight and got out of bed, turning around to scoop a reluctant Keith in to his arms. “Think of this as our second date. Or our third, if you consider that other time we walked around the city as our first.”

The red paladin continued to pout even after Lance set him back on his feet. “See? We already explored some. We can just hang out in here.” He started to move back towards the bed, but Lance caught his wrist and tugged the shorter so he fell back against his chest.

“Keith,” he whispered into Keith’s ear, “let’s have some fun out there, and then we can have _lots_ of fun in here tonight after everyone’s gone to sleep. Do you like the sound of that?” Keith swallowed, nodding. “Good.” Lance stepped back, nearly causing Keith to fall. “Now let’s go!”

He half-ran out of the room and down the hall, all childish energy and long limbs. Keith shook his head, laughing softly under his breath before he began to follow at a slower pace. “I’m dating a child.”

~

“Ooh, Keith look at this! Isn’t it pretty?”

Keith turned to look at what Lance was holding up. It looked something like a windchime, but the objects were being held in place by some sort of magnetic force, if Keith had to guess. The pieces of the alien windchime were gold in color and varied in shape and size. They slowly spun and moved around each other in a confusing, yet satisfying way, creating a soft melody around it.

“It is pretty,” Keith agreed. It wasn’t something he would pick out, but he could admire that it was interesting and the music was certainly calming. Lance’s eyes were sparkling as he looked at it. “Do you want to get it?”

The blue paladin tilted his head as he looked at it. “Kind of. But it wouldn’t really match with anything in the castle.”

“So?” Keith took it from Lance, admiring how light and delicate it was up close. “You like it right?” Lance nodded. “Okay. Then we’ll get it.”

“Aw are you going to buy it for me? How cute.” The tan boy cooed at him, pinching Keith’s cheek.

Keith scowled at him. “Shut up or I won’t buy it.”

“You won’t be buying anything.” A tall Olaerian loomed over them, eyes narrowed and beefy arms crossed. “We don’t serve his kind here.”

It felt like he’d been stabbed with a knife, his happiness popping like a soap bubble. Keith’s gaze dropped to the ground, an apology already forming on his lips. But then Lance stepped in front of him and glared up at the alien. “His kind? You mean you don’t serve paladins of Voltron? You know, the people who are helping free the universe from Zarkon?”

“He’s part Galra,” The Olaerian explained, confused and annoyed that he had to.

“And? Not all Galra are evil and Keith’s done nothing but fight for the good side since the beginning. You owe him an apology.”

Keith grabbed at Lance’s sleeve. “Lance, c’mon, it’s not that big of a deal. We can find one somewhere else.”

“No. You deserve to be respected just as much as the rest of us.” Lance turned his attention back to the Olaerian. “Apologize to Keith. Now.”

“Like hell I’m going to apologize to a” he said something in Olaerian that didn’t translate, but Lance could tell that it was something awful. “Get out of my store before I show him how his kind ought to be treated.”

Lance’s hands bunched into fists and took another step forward, ready to start swinging. “Don’t you dare lay a hand on him.”

“That is enough!” A sharp female voice rang out. A shorter but much fiercer looking Olearian marched towards them. “Krewnik, you ought to know better than to pick needless fights in my store. Go to the back where I told you to be.” The Olearian didn’t move, opening his mouth to argue. “Now, Krewnik. I will not give you another chance.” He left and she turned her attention to the two paladins.

The taller of the two looked down at his feet, twiddling his thumbs. He felt like he’d been caught by his own mother. “I’m sorry for nearly fighting, ma’am,” he began.

“Nonsense,” she said, brushing away the apology. “Krewnik has much to be angry at the Galra for, but that is no excuse for acting that way to an ally of our planet.” She smiled sweetly at Keith. “I am glad that you and the Blade of Malmora have joined the fight against the Galran Empire. It shows there is still goodness in that race after so many decades of evil and cruelty.”

Keith squeezed Lance’s hand as he struggled to swallow properly. “Th-thank you. That means a lot.”

“Of course.” She noticed the windchime still in Keith’s other hand. “Are you interested in this piece?” He nodded. “In light of what just happened, I would be honored if you would accept it as a gift.”

“Oh, no, you really don’t have to do that,” Keith protested.

The Olearian woman waved her hand, taking the windchime and going to the counter. “It’s no trouble. Let me just get this packaged for you.” She did as she said and handed it back in a bag to Keith. “The songs of a StarBell are known to give one pleasant dreams and ease tension. Knowing what you have been through and what you are likely to go through, perhaps this is perfect for you.”

“Thank you.” Lance echoed the sentiment. “And thanks again for what you said.”

“You’re both very welcome. I hope the rest of your stay on Olaer is very pleasant.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angry teen Krewnik's father was killed fighting the Galra and the woman is his aunt btw.


	19. Powerful Pasts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance tells the red paladin what he has never been. 
> 
> Keith tells the blue paladin what the Galra were once.

The two left the store and Lance began to lead them in the direction of where they were staying. “She was nice,” Lance said after a while. He shifted some of the other bags in his hand so they were spread over both hands. Most of the things he’d bought were gifts for the others, interesting gadgets that might interest Hunk or Pidge, a stress relieving thing for Shiro, a sparkly scarf for Allura. He’d even secretly bought Keith a present when the red paladin wasn’t looking. “She kind of reminded me of my mom, to be honest.”

“She was, yeah.” Keith still had a troubled look on his face. Lance was about to ask when Keith spoke up. “Does it ever bother you that I’m part Galra?”

“Not really, no,” Lance answered with a shrug. “Why should it?”

“Because the Galra are the bad guys and I’m a Galra?”

“But you’re not.” Keith stared at him, confused and annoyed that the blue paladin wasn’t _getting_ it. Lance sighed. “You weren’t raised as a Galra, you were raised as a human. You didn’t even know the Galra existed for most of your life, let alone that you were part Galra. You weren’t raised in their culture and you still don’t know anything about it, so as far as I see it, you’re just a human being with some weird DNA and shitty haircut.” Lance beamed at him, dodging when Keith smacked his shoulder.

Keith stared down at the sidewalk thinking about what Lance had said. “I guess you’re right,” he mumbled.

Lance smirked. “Sorry what was that?”

“I said you’re right,” the red paladin said a little louder.

“Sorry?”

“Fuck off, Lance.”

“Yeah, I thought that’s what you said.” Lance laughed, slinging an arm around Keith’s. “C’mon, you greasy asshole.”

~

Later after Lance had given out most of his presents for the rest of the team, he had retired back to his own room alone. Naturally, Keith was waiting for him on the balcony, watching the alien sun set in brilliant orange blaze. The blue paladin quietly slipped out of his room and snuck up behind him. “Hey, Handsome,” he hummed, wrapping his arms around the moody teen. “Come here often?”

“Shut up.” Lance huffed a laugh and, though he couldn’t see it, he knew Keith smiled. “Lance, you know how you said that I didn’t know anything about Galra culture?”

“Uh-huh.” Lance tilted his head so he could see what he could of Keith’s face with the angle. “You going to tell me that you’ve secretly been learning all about it?”

“Yeah.”

The blue paladin blinked. “Oh. Learn anything interesting?”

Keith nodded. “Well, since Zarkon took over, it’s been kind of awful, but the time before that the Galra were pretty great. They had an incredible justice system and as a culture they were very community based and willing to help those in need. It’s a tragedy that it all changed.”

“Maybe they’ll get back to that once we get Zarkon and Haggar out of power.” Lance laid his cheek on Keith’s back. “You can be a part of it.”

“So can you.”

“Yeah, but it’d mean more for you than me.” Lance shivered in the wind, pressing closer to Keith. “C’mon, let’s go inside. It’s cold.”

“Be there in a moment.”

Lance kissed the side of his head. “Don’t be too long. Dinner’ll be in a bit and I wanna have some fun with you first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short update, but it's there. Also my chapter titles are getting worse. 
> 
> Next you get to see what Lance bought Keith~


	20. Powerful Futures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The future begins to look brighter

Dinner was surprisingly normal, if Keith could ignore the curious glances Hunk gave him, the concerned ones from Shiro, and the fact that he could _just_ see the hickey he’d left on Lance’s collarbone when the boy leaned forward to reach for something. Which he did often and each time, Keith’s face grew hot. By the sixth time Lance did it, Keith was _sure_ he was doing on purpose.

“Keith, are you feeling alright? You’re very red,” Allura asked, brows furrowing as she observed him.

“Yeah, Keith,” Lance spoke up, smug grin begging to be slapped off his face, “you’re not getting sick are you?”

“I’m fine.”

Coran leaned across the table to look at him closer. “Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to have a checkup to make sure. We can’t have the right arm of Voltron catching a cold.” He rattled on with one of his strange stories that didn’t make sense, but Keith stopped listening, turning his attention to glaring at Lance. The blue paladin winked in response and continued eating like he hadn’t made it his personal mission to casually destroy Keith.

Determined not to give Lance the satisfaction of continuing to get a reaction out of him, Keith struck up a conversation with Pidge. He had no idea what she was saying half the time, but he guessed it had something to do with applying some Olearian technology to the castle that would boost the defense system. “Honestly, the biggest problem is a certain alien who can’t bear to have the castle ‘disfigured in such a hideous way.’” Keith snorted.

“The Castle is the finest ship and does not need improvement,” Coran argued.

“Every battle we fight, the castle almost gets destroyed!” Pidge fired back. “It’s ten thousand years out of date. Stop being so old-fashioned.”

Allura raised a hand to stop the dispute in its track. “Pidge does have a point, Coran,” she said calmly. “I understand that you wish for the ship to remain as it was, but it is simply not enough for us to face the Galra with. And I already approved the upgrades,” she added with a nervous giggle.

The advisor stared at her before sighing. “You are right, Princess. But I would like to oversee all of it so they don’t mess anything up.” Allura gave her approval and he beamed again, chomping down on some strange squid like thing.

Dinner passed smoothly after that. Keith continued to ignore Lance in favor of talking to someone else, changing the topic rapidly anytime Lance tried to interject. Rather than getting discouraged, Lance took it as a challenge and kept trying to get Keith’s attention, smirking for God knows what reason each time he was denied. The others took notice of their little game, but with the exception of Hunk and Shiro, didn’t think it was anything more than their usual behavior.

Afterwards, Keith was heading back to Lance’s room when a metal hand caught his arm. “Keith, may I speak with you for a moment?” Shiro asked, already starting to lead him down a hallway. Keith’s eyes locked onto Lance’s for a moment and Lance smiled, pointing at Hunk, signaling that he’d be busy for a bit anyways.

“Why’re you being all formal?” Keith asked.

Shiro sighed as they entered a small greenhouse like room filled with plants. “I wanted to apologize about how things went this morning. I didn’t mean to insinuate I was more concerned about the team than you.”

“It’s fine,” Keith mumbled. He hated situations like this. It was always so awkward. “That wasn’t really the problem anyways.”

“Oh. Then what was?”

Keith crossed his arms. “You were just asking a lot of the same questions that I was asking myself and it was just stressful?” He shrugged. “It’s okay now though. I talked to Lance and we’re good.”

“So you are dating Lance.”

“Um. Yeah.”

“Is it working out well so far? You’re not arguing all the time are you? What was that thing during dinner about?”

The red paladin cut him off with a glare. “Shiro. It’s none of your business.”

“I’m your brother.”

“Adopted.” Shiro pouted, doing his best puppy eyes. “Shiro, you’re like 6’7” and ripped. You can’t look cute. Stop that.”

Shiro did not stop. “But Keith~” he whined, looking even more disgusting.

“Nah, I’m out.” Keith turned to leave.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. But just answer one question?” Keith stopped, looking back at the black paladin expectantly. “Are you happy with him?”

“Very.”

~

“Hey, Keith.” Lance was laying in the middle of his bed, staring at the ceiling. He barely even glanced at the red paladin when he walked in before sighing.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Just kinda homesick.” Lance rolled over, curling into a ball. “Hunk and I were talking about us and I ended up thinking about what my family would think about you and I just-“ he broke off, biting his lip. “I wish I could at least let them know I’m safe.”

Keith sat on the bed, brushing his fingers through Lance’s hair. “I guess that’s kind of my one advantage of being an orphan. No one to miss me back home.”

“That’s really sad, Keith.”

“Not really.” He leaned down to peck Lance’s cheek. “Everyone I care about is all right here.”

Lance’s eyes watered and Keith had enough to time to decide he had made a huge mistake before the blue paladin was throwing his arms around him. “You stupid, selfish, adorable asshole. I hate you so much. How dare you be so cute?” Lance sobbed into his shoulder, squeezing the air from his lungs.

The red paladin’s head was spinning, unsure what was going on with Lance anymore. “Are you scolding me or complimenting me?”

“Yes, now shut up.” Lance held him for a while before he pulled back with a sniffle. “I’m really glad you think of us as your family, Keith.”

“Really? Because it doesn’t seem like it,” Keith remarked dryly wiping away a stray tear.

“Shush. I’m trying to be nice.” The blue paladin stood up from the bed. “I have a present for you.”

“Oh?” _When did he buy one? Or did he make it? But I’ve been with him all day._

Lance dug around in one of the drawers on the nightstand and pulled out a small black box. “You don’t have to accept it or wear it or whatever if you don’t want. I just thought it was kind of nice and, uh, here.” He handed it to Keith.

It wasn’t heavy, Keith noted before he opened the box. Laying inside was a small blue stone hanging from a thin silver chain. It was oval in shape and when he carefully picked it up, it was warm to the touch. “It’s pretty.”

“Yeah?” Lance said eagerly. “I have a matching one.” He pulled at a chain around his neck to reveal a red stone. “They were a matching set. Actually there’s a cool thing about them. Put yours on.” Keith did and Lance took Keith’s hand in his. Immediately the stones began to warm up and slowly the cover began to shift into purple. “Isn’t that cool? Blue and red and together they make purple.”

“Wow.” Keith watched as the purple faded back to blue after Lance let him go. “It doesn’t stay very long.”

“It’ll stay longer if we’re in contact longer. The guy at the store said that stronger our bond grows the more easily the colors will blend. So eventually we might only have to be around each other for it turn to purple.”

Keith smiled down at the pretty stone, thinking how perfectly the color matched the blue of Lance’s eyes. “Thank you, Lance.”

“So you really do like it?” Keith nodded. “And you’re going to keep wearing it?”

The red paladin rolled his eyes. “Of course I am. My boyfriend gave this to me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had most of this written yesterday and I was like "oh I'll just be able to do this quick and do a second update to catch up, but it ended up being a lot longer. Anyways the empowerment days are over and now we're moving into Victory.


	21. Victory Spoils

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The paladins win a battle. Keith decided Lance deserves a reward.

Lance’s body was humming with energy as he exited his lion. They had left Olaer and we’re moving around, helping overthrow the Galra one planet at a time. Each time they fought the Galra, it seemed to get easier, with the Galra somewhat scattered and disorganized while Voltron and their allies were growing stronger.

The particular battle they’d just won had been against a very large force that had been gathering since Zarkon’s defeat. According to the Blade’s insider, it was a sect that was planning a coup to take over the empire, or if that failed, start their own. Either way, it was a threat and while Shiro and Allura had been hesitant about attacking and the battle had been fairly difficult, the mission had proven to be successful.

“Keith!” the blue paladin sang when he spotted the boy coming out of Red’s hangar. He caught the smaller in his arms and spun him around, laughing. “You were amazing out there.”

“Thank-mm!” Keith was cut off by Lance pressing their mouths together, lips moving urgently. “What’s this?” he asked, when Lance let him go in favor of sucking at his neck. They stumbled back so Keith was trapped between the wall and Lance’s body.

Lance smirked, kissing at the mark he’d just left. “Since you did such a good job, I thought I’d give you a reward.”

“Pretty sure you did more than me.” The red paladin had them flipped around in an instant, sliding a leg between Lance’s thighs. “If I was amazing, you were spectacular. Fantastic. Unbelievable.” Each compliment was punctuated by kiss somewhere on Lance’s face or neck while Keith slowly ground his thigh against Lance’s crotch.

Needless to say, Lance was melting before his very eyes.

The two tensed when they heard voices drifting down the hall, growing louder as the others came closer. “Bedroom,” Lance ordered, taking Keith’s hand and sprinting towards the elevator.

Keith had moved most of his stuff into Lance’s room once they were back to living in the ship again. It hadn’t been much, but every time Lance caught sight of some little object Keith had picked up on a planet or noticed Keith’s jacket hung over the back of a chair, he couldn’t help but feel a jolt of happiness.

They stumbled into the room, Lance already tearing at Keith’s shirt while also trying to continue kissing him. The Cuban boy fell back on the bed and stared as Keith stripped off the garment himself before he rushed to do the same. Once the shirts were discarded, the red paladin straddled Lance’s hips, mouths already back to working against each other.

“Fuck, Keith. Why’re you so damn hot?” Lance groaned, hands exploring Keith’s toned chest and stomach. “It’s not fucking fair.”

“You’re not exactly one to talk,” Keith suggested. He licked a stripe up Lance’s neck, drawing out a needy mewl. “We could work out together though.”

“You know what’s a great workout?”

Keith was only have listening, focused on getting Lance’s damn belt off. “What?”

“Having sex.”

 _Patience yields focus,_ Keith chanted in his head. Somehow, he resisted hitting Lance right then, but he was pretty sure that had more to do with him finally undoing Lance’s pants and shoving them down to his knees. “Shut up, dumbass.”

“Make me.”

The cocky look in Lance’s eyes was enough of an invitation without the words. Keith slid a hand underneath the waistband of his underwear to wrap around Lance’s dick. The smirk vanished as Lance’s mouth dropped open in a loud moan. “Like that?”

“Asshole. Take your clothes off.” Lance moved farther onto the bed while also shedding the rest of his clothes. Keith did the same and moved to hover over Lance’s body, taking in the sight of Lance, face red and lips redder from being kissed, blue eyes looking up at him with so much _care_ it almost hurt. The red stone sparkled as it rose and fell with Lance’s breathing. “Gonna do something or just wanna look?”

“Looking’s good for me.”

Lance laughed, rolling them over so he was on top. “You’re stupid sometimes, ya know that?”

“You’re stupid all the time, you know that?”

The blue paladin rolled his eyes, pressing a quick kiss to Keith’s lips. “Maybe, but you still love me.”

Keith smiled. “Yeah. Guess I do.”

The two teens froze a moment later, realizing just _what_ had just been said. “I- I mean, um,” Keith stuttered out, trying to figure out just what he meant.

“I love you too,” Lance blurted. They both went incredibly red, struggling to even look at each other. “If- if that’s okay to say. I understand if you don’t want to say it back, but I really, really like you and I wanted to tell you for a while now, but I was scared you wouldn’t react well and now I’m wondering if I should have waited because you haven’t said anything yet and—“

The red paladin pulled Lance down by his neck, shutting him up with a mind-blowing kiss. “I love you, Lance McClain. Now stop babbling and do something else.”

“Do something else?” Lance asked, tone teasing. “What if I wanted to do you?”

“Then I’d suggest hurrying up.” Keith rolled his hips up, grinding his hardness into Lance’s.

Lance shuddered. “Yes, sir.” He reached into the nightstand for the bottle of lube he’d hunted down (which had taken hours and he’d sorted through so many storerooms but that’s not the point) and settled between Keith’s legs. “You sure you want to do this? We can do something else.”

While they weren’t exactly hesitant about getting physical, the couple had yet to actually go all the way. The few times they’d tried, Keith had backed out part way through and they’d just gotten off some other way. This time however, Keith was determined to make it through. “Yeah, I’m sure. This is supposed to be a reward for you. Or do you not want to after all?”

“No, no, I definitely want to.” Lance squirted some lube onto his fingers, warming it up. “I just wanted to make sure you do. Alrighty, here I go. And hopefully here you cum.”

Keith didn’t have the chance to yell at him for possibly the dumbest joke Lance had ever made before a finger was sliding inside him. He bit his lip to prevent a whimper from escaping. It wasn’t painful and he’d gotten used to the weird feeling, but this time felt _different_ than when either Lance or Keith, himself, had done it. It felt… good.

“You good, Keith? You’re kinda of tensing up?” Lance kept the movement slow and easy, his other hand lightly stroking Keith to keep him hard. “Is it bad?”

“I- I’m fine,” the red paladin choked out. When the digit brushed against a sensitive bundle of nerves, his hips jerked against his will and a soft moan left him.

Lance froze staring at him. “Wowza.”

Keith growled, “Fuck off. Keep going.”

“Do you want me to keep going or fuck off? I can’t do both, Keith.” Lance smirked as he purposefully pressed against Keith’s prostate when the shorter tried to respond. “You’re pretty sensitive today, aren’t you, babe?”

“Don’t call me that.” Keith was starting to pant heavily. He groaned when Lance decided to add a second finger, the stretch even more welcome. “You’re being a dick.”

Lance chuckled lowly. “What should I call you then? Mullet? Sweetcheeks? Kitten?” Keith’s dick twitched noticeably at the last one and Lance almost choked on his spit. “Is that what you want to be called, my little kitten?”

The red paladin threw an arm over his face in embarrassment. “Shut up, Lance. I hate you.”

“No, you don’t,” Lance sang. “You love me, don’t you kitten?” Keith had loosened up more, allowing him to a third finger. “Tell me how much you love me, Keith. Tell me how much you want me in you.”

The sheets were threatening to rip with how tight Keith was gripping at them. A pool of pre-cum had collected on his stomach and Lance hadn’t even been touching him for last few minutes. “Fuck. Just fuck. Dammit, Lance.” Keith was scrambling to hold onto his self-control, but, as usual, Lance was an expert at destroying it. “Lance.”

“Yeah, kitty?”

 _Oh, yeah, fuck that._ Keith sat up suddenly and shoved Lance onto his back. The blue paladin had no chance to question what was happening before Keith was sitting above his hips, stroking his cock quickly. All thought leaked out his ears as the raven-haired teen sank down on his long member, the prettiest moan he’d even heard floating from his mouth.

“Holy shit, Keith,” he breathed out. Keith looked like some sort of sex god on top of him: hair disheveled and hanging in his face, skin flushed and glowing, dark eyes completely blown with lust. There was no way Keith was part of the mortal realm. He looked far too beautiful for that and Lance was eternally grateful that it was he, Lance McClain that was able to witness this.

Keith was struggling to breathe properly. He’d gone too fast and now it hurt, but the pain was fading into pleasure as he stared down at Lance. The blue paladin’s eyes were practically sparkling with affection and somehow that made everything so much better for Keith. He rested his hands on Lance’s chest for balance, able to feel the other’s thundering heartbeat through his fingertips. “You were taking too long.”

“Only you would complain right now.” Lance ran a hand through Keith’s hair, tucking it behind his ear. “You look so beautiful.”

“Pretty sure you only mean that because your dick’s in me.”

“Stop ruining the moment and kiss me, you asshole.”

The red paladin huffed a laugh but obeyed, leaning down. The movement caused Lance to shift inside him, rubbing close to where his prostate was, but not quite there. He stopped short of Lance’s mouth, whining slightly.

Lance squeezed his thighs, urging him to keep moving. The kiss was slow and gentle, at odds with all they’d been doing previously. The moment felt fragile though and the movements of their lips reflected that. When Keith sat up again, the pain he’d been feeling had completely vanished and he sighed as Lance slid just the tiniest bit deeper inside him.

Curiously, Keith rolled his hips, moaning at the spikes of pleasure that went lancing up his spine. “Oh, fuck,” he panted. “It feels so good.” He kept moving, trying out different angles and speeds, until he found the most pleasurable way of riding Lance. The coil in his stomach was growing tighter with each passing second. “Shit, I don’t think this is going to last long.”

“Yeah?” Lance grunted. “Tell me about it.” The sight of Keith riding him alone could have probably sent him over the edge, let alone what he was actually _feeling._ “You feel so fucking good, kitty. So good.”

Keith whimpered, weak to that stupid pet name. “Touch me,” he rasped out.

The blue paladin was quick to obey, fingers curling around Keith. He tried to keep it steady with Keith’s own rhythm, but it proved to be difficult. It was more than enough for Keith though, and he quickly fell over the edge. White ropes spilled over Lance’s hand and stomach as Keith arched back, a loud moan pouring from his lips.

Lance watched in fascination while feeling how tight Keith became around him. He thrusted his hips up a few times, taking full advantage of Keith’s tightness to get himself off, emptying himself inside his Galra boyfriend.

Keith collapsed onto the bed at his side, narrowly avoiding falling into cum. “Holy shit, Lance.”

“I don’t think there’s a ‘holy’ thing about you, babe.” Lance put an arm around his shoulders, pulling the sleepy teen close. “That was amazing.”

“Yeah.”

“I love you.”

“Yeah.”

“We need to go get cleaned up.”

“Nah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith's a furry lol
> 
> It's been raining all day while i've been writing this. Not like windy or angry raining, just nice and calming with a some thunder (which was really loud and unnecessary) and all I could think about was how much Lance would cry if he saw it? Like everything was kinda washed out and gray, except for the trees and the grass which were really freaking green? It was so pretty and earthy and probably what Lance dreams about when he's homesick.
> 
> It really isn't important, but I thought I'd share see you tomorrow (or tonight) with the next chapter


	22. Lance's Victory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A natural disaster threatens an alien population. Voltron is there to help, but Lance must race against time. 
> 
> Will he win?

“Paladins, the area you’re in is quickly losing stability. Finish evacuating your sector and get out of there,” Allura’s sharp voice said over the intercom. “You have five minutest tops before the crust begins to disintegrate.”

Keith scanned the empty streets for any sign of someone lagging behind. The transport was fully loaded and ready to take off. When no one else showed on his scan, he waved at the pilot to take off before heading to the red lion. “My sector’s all clear. I’m in my lion now.”

“Same here,” Hunk said.

“Done!” came Pidge’s voice. “That was fun.”

“How was any of this fun? The crust is collapsing beneath our very feet!” the yellow paladin complained.

Shiro sighed. “I’m done here. Lance?”

“Yeah, I think we’re all loaded up. Bye guys!” Keith could imagine the Cuban boy cheerily waving at the passengers as the transport lifted off the group. “Oh, wait, hang on. My scanner just started to pick up something.”

“Paladins, you must proceed to your lions immediately.” Allura’s command was accompanied by a huge tremor that shook the entire town.

“Hang on, I think there’s a kid down here.” Lance’s voice sounded jerky as if he was running. Another quake startled a squawk from the blue paladin. “C’mon just a little bit longer.”

“Lance, get back to your lion!” Shiro ordered. “It’s too dangerous.”

The blue paladin didn’t stop moving. “I’m not leaving a kid behind. I can make it.”

“Shiro’s right,” came Coran’s voice. “Many large fractures have already breached the surface and most of them are in your area. It would be better for you to turn back.”

“No.”

Keith’s grip on Red’s control tightened. “Lance, stop this. You’re being stupid.”

“I can save him.”

The red paladin watched as a large crack ripped through the street in front of him. He took off just in time for it to miss him, leaving a large gap below where land had been moments ago. “Lance, please. You’ll die.”

“So will he.” Lance’s voice was dead serious. “Hey, there, kiddo. I’m here to save you. Give me your hand. That’s it.”

 _Maybe he will be able to make it,_ Keith thought. And then the third tremor hit.

They could hear the kid scream through Lance’s microphone and heard Lance’s grunt when he fell. “Quiznak, this place really is falling apart.”

“Lance, I’m coming to get you,” Keith announced, zooming towards the blue paladin’s location. “Stay there.”

“Yeah, I’m hanging over a deep, dark abyss with a wiggly kid in my arm. I’m not really going anywhere.” Lance’s voice was strained, but not afraid. Keith wondered if he was faking it for the kid’s sake or if he somehow wasn’t actually terrified of dying. Keith knew that _he_ was terrified of Lance dying. “Actually, if you could hurry that’d be great. I’m kind of slipping.”

Keith put on a burst of speed, watching the blue dot on his screen grow closer and closer, but it still wasn’t fast _enough_. “Hang on, Lance.”

He was moments from reaching where Lance was when the earth shook once again and he could see Lance lose his grip and start to fall down…

down…

down….

On to the top of the Blue lion.

“Yeah, that’s my beautiful girl!” Lance crowded. “Ha! Keith isn’t the only one who superbonded with their lion.”

Keith watched with shaking hands as Lance ushered the alien child into the lion and with a wave to Keith, followed.

“Everyone get back to the ship. Lance, drop off that kid at the moon base first. I’m sure his parents are worried.”

“Yeah, I imagine so. This guy’s a little cutie.” Lance was all laughs and smiles again, even though he’d been less than a second away from death not even a minute ago. As the blue lion flew off into the sky, Keith followed without thinking. “Uh, Keith? Aren’t you going back to the castle?”

“Yeah.” He didn’t change direction and continued to closely flank the large lion.

Lance didn’t bother to mention it again, and neither did the other’s though even _he_ could tell that he was acting odd. He kept close to the blue lion even after she landed and Lance walked the kid to the colony that had been set up for the refugees. They flew back to the ship together and if it hadn’t been for Red’s insistence, Keith would have flown into Blue’s hangar as well.

As it was, he sprinted there immediately after landing, arriving breathlessly as Lance was only just stepping out of Blue’s mouth. The red paladin tackled Lance to the ground. “You fucking asshole! Why did you do that? Do you realize how close you were to dying? Did you _want_ to die?” His voice was loud and nearly screeching as he shouted in Lance’s face, angry tears welling up in his eyes. “Why couldn’t you just listen to me for fucking once?”

“Keith,” Lance started.

“I almost lost you,” Keith sobbed, hands curled into fists at his sides. “I can’t lose you too, Lance.”

“You didn’t.” Lance tucked Keith’s hair behind his ear, cupping his face. “I’m still here, Keith. I’m not going anywhere.”

“But you could have—“

“I know. But I didn’t. And that’s all that matters, okay?” The blue paladin wiped away at the tears streaming down Keith’s cheeks. “I’ll be more careful next time.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonus:

“I’m gonna vomit,” Pidge commented as they listened in on the conversation over the coms.

Hunk, Shiro, and Allura shushed her as they huddled around the console. “This is better than anything we had back on Altea. Are all human love affairs so dramatic?”

“No,” Shiro stated confidently, “dramatic is just their thing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's almost no explanation about what's going on here and idk myself, so hopefully it won't be too confusing. See you tomorrow.
> 
> NOTICE: I don't know spanish at all, but I really like the idea of a bilingual Lance, so if you know any common phrases that a Cuban Lance would use in like day to day conversation or are interested in helping me translate longer sentences for other fics that require more Spanish, pls let me know in the comments. I want to make it as accurate as possible


	23. Pidge's Victory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge and Hunk have a bet. Klance does not appreciate it.

“Hey, Keith, could you come here for a second? I want to see something in Red’s computer, but she won’t let me in.”

Keith resisted the urge to throw something at the door when he heard Pidge’s request. “Can it wait?”

“Not really. It’s super important.”

Lance sighed from underneath him. “You should go. It probably won’t take that long.”

“It better not,” Keith growled, climbing off the bed. “Stay right where you are. I’ll be back in less than ten. I don’t care if Pidge agrees or not.”

“I heard that.”

“Good.”

Keith grabbed his jacket and marched out of the room. He had _finally_ gotten the chance to be alone with Lance for the first time in a week and _this_ happened? Really? Couldn’t he just have an hour to make out and cuddle his boyfriend without someone needing one of them? He swore they had more free time when Zarkon was actually hunting them down.

He quickly made sure Pidge was set up inside of Red before sprinting back to their room. As he left the hangar, he could feel Red’s amusement. Keith rushed in, ready to pick up where they’d left off, but Lance was gone. He groaned, collapsing onto the bed in self-pity for a few minutes before he got back up to hunt his boyfriend down again.

The pattern continued for the next few days. Even during the night, something tended to happen that would force them to separate. Halfway through the second week, Keith was ready to rip someone’s head off in a Lance-deprived rage.

The red paladin stormed through the corridors, searching out the Cuban teen. He found him on the bridge, assisting Shiro and Allura with fixing a machine. All three turned to stare at him when he entered, one hopeful and two concerned and slightly afraid looks. Keith ignored them and walked over to where Lance was standing and easily tossed him over one shoulder. “I’m taking this,” he said and proceeded to walk out.

“Keith, we were in the middle of-“ Shiro started to protest. He stopped when Keith pulled out his bayard and threw a menacing look in his direction. “You know what, we can probably handle this on our own.”

“Did you come to rescue me, my handsome prince?” Lance asked after they were out of the room. He pouted when Keith ignored him, kicking his legs. “You know I can walk right? Put me down.”

“No.”

“Please? I feel like a sack of potatoes.”

Keith sighed when Lance wiggled more and set the blue paladin on his feet. It was only for a moment however, as he promptly scooped him back up into his arms, this time like a bride. “Is this better, your highness?”

“It’ll do,” Lance giggled. He put his arms around Keith’s neck, smooching his cheek. “Why do you want to carry me so bad? Are you that desperate to touch me?” The red paladin didn’t answer, but with his blushing face, he didn’t need to. “Oh, gosh, that’s it. Keith, you’re so cute. What am I going to do?”

“Give me a blowjob?”

“Keith, please. The moment.”

“Sorry.”

“You should be.”

~

Meanwhile, the green and yellow paladins were huddled in a small room with several screens displaying different parts of the castle. The one they were most interested in was one of a hallway.

“Ha, I told you Keith would break first,” Pidge teased. “He’s too instinct based to have that much self-control.”

“Yeah, but Lance was _close_ , I know it. Dammit, why couldn’t Keith hold out another day?” Hunk mourned the loss of several alien machines as well as the hell he knew he would be going through Coran’s cleaning and maintenance assistant for the next month. “We’re going to leave them alone from now on right? Because I seriously thought Keith was about to kill me at several points and I do not need that kind of stress in my life.”

“It was fun though, right? Revenge for all their drama and grossness.”

“Yeah. They are pretty gross, aren’t they?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really short, but oh boy am I tired. Still a chapter behind, but I'm still going to have 30, even if the last one is a day late. 
> 
> Thank you for taking the time to read this! Love you guys


	24. Lance's Second Victory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith's old rivalry isn't dead yet.

****

“I thought you might be in here,” Lance said as he walked into the training deck. Keith stopped the paused the fighting simulation and approached him, figuring he might as well see what Lance wants before the blue paladin decided to interrupt him. “Coran was telling me about this really cool training feature on here and I wanted to try it out with you.”

Keith, having only just begun his usual routine, shrugged. “Alright. What is it?”

The taller beamed, happy that Keith had been so quick to agree. “It’s really simple. The training room releases a couple gladiators at a time in random places. There’s a set number of bots that you decide on beforehand and the computer keeps track of who kills how many, so in the end everyone knows the exact number. Alteans used it as sort of game thing, I guess, so I figured we could do the same. Make a little bet on who gets the most kills.”

“I thought our whole rivalry thing would be done now that we were dating,” Keith pointed out. It sounded like fun, and usually Keith would leap at the chance, but he didn’t want this to end in a stupid argument. “We could get Hunk and Pidge and do a right versus left thing.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “What? Scared to go up against me?” He strolled past Keith to the control console. “Besides they’re busy. And it’s just a _friendly_ bet, Keith. Don’t make a big deal out it. Especially when you lose.”

“A, I never agreed to do this. B, who says I’ll lose?” The red paladin crossed his arms, belatedly realizing that Lance was getting under his skin again. He was so _good_ at riling Keith up, it hardly seemed like a challenge. “I train way more than you. I have the advantage.”

The Cuban boy smirked back at him. “That so? Well, then how many do you think we should go up against?”

Keith considered it. “Twenty-five?” Not so many it would take forever and be exhausting, but enough that Lance wouldn’t have the endurance to keep up.

“Okay, done.” Lance left the console and walked to the middle of the room, drawing his bayard. “I’ll right, Mullet. Let’s get this done. I want my prize.”

“We didn’t even decide on a pr-“ The four gladiators falling from the ceiling cut him off. He immediately slashed at the nearest one, ducking under a swing from a second before swiftly ending that one as well. Keith turned to attack the next one, but found the other two on the ground, a hole blown neatly between their eyes. Lance smirked at him, winking. The red paladin gritted his teeth as he heard the doors slid open again.

It was tiring, defeating that many gladiators. As he took down the eleventh one in a row, he wondered if perhaps he had over-estimated his ability. He had certainly underestimated Lance’s, he thought, dispatching a twelfth. The blue paladin was still tied with him and while he hadn’t gained any sort of lead, neither was willing to risk giving away a single point.

But now it was time for the last one, and the door that was opening was closer to Keith. He could get it before Lance.

An arm wrapped around his waist, twisting him around so he was nose to nose with Lance, their bodies flushed tight against each other. “Hey, pretty kitty. Wanna play?” Lance said, voice low and soft. What was not low and soft was his bayard firing from behind Keith, tearing hole in the gladiator. Lance’s score ticked up one more point.

He had won.

“You fuckin’ cheated,” Keith said. “That was cheating and you know it.”

Lance ignored him in favor of doing a weird little victory dance. “Aw, are you jealous? I won and you lost~ Poor Keith.”

The red paladin rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “I didn’t lose. You cheated so it doesn’t count.”

“So I don’t get my prize?” Lance was teasing him and Keith seriously considered punching that stupid, cute smile off his face. “But I was sooo looking forward to it.”

“What prize?”

“Well,” Lance hummed, back hugging Keith to whisper in his ear. “I wanted to take a bath… in your cum.”

Keith promptly decked him.

His score on the computer changed to thirteen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After a brief visit to the infirmary, Lance did get his prize. 
> 
> He also got many complaints from the rest of the crew.


	25. The Final Victory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Voltron's final battle.

The massive number of Galra ships before them was daunting as they skittered around the atmosphere of the planet. The five lions and the castle seemed insignificant in comparison. But they weren’t alone anymore. Hundreds of ships from dozens of planets were beside them and surrounding the planet, cutting off any chance of escape for the Galra.

“Alright, guys. This is it. Once we win this fight, the war is over.” Shiro’s voice was steady and strong over the coms. “We’ve worked hard and fought harder together, and now we are going to win together. Now let’s form Voltron!”

The giant Legendary Defender led the final charge against the Galra, each paladin’s heart beating in sync with the other’s. For a single moment just before they reached the enemy ships, there was complete and utter silence. Then all hell broke loose.

Galra and allied ships were everywhere in confusing mess. Voltron worked to take down the larger ships that posed a bigger threat with the ion cannons. After what had to be the twelfth one, a blast of dark magic shot past, missing only because Lance had moved them out of the way at the last second. The sudden movement had sent them off balance though, flying into the side of a half destroyed ship.

“It’s Haggar!” Keith shouted. “If she’s on that ship, then so is Lotor.”

“Okay, let’s split and head to where that blast came. Pidge, Lance, and Hunk, act as a distraction while Keith and I get close enough to attack,” Shiro ordered. “Allura, how’s the rest of the fleet doing?”

“Everything’s going okay. We’ve taken some casualties, but the Galra are taking a lot more. Take out the command ship and it should be over.”

Lance crowed, “And then we can go home.”

The five lions sped towards the ship the magic had come from, weaving amongst the chaos of the battle raging around them. A few more blasts came shooting out, giving the paladins a more accurate location of where Haggar was. Lance reached it first, promptly sending a blast of ice to cover that section of the ship. Pidge and Hunk went up to do some damage to the ion cannon and other weapons system, keeping the ship busy.

Meanwhile, Keith had taken a longer route so he came down from above the ship, firing directly at where the main generator was. The shot took off the metal covering it, but left the generator undamaged. The red lion swerved back up as the laser guns trained on them, leading their attention away. Shiro blew in behind them, the black lion’s jaw blade cutting clean through the machine.

Immediately the lights on the ship flickered out and it began to list off to the side. The remaining Galra ships seemed more confused as the orders they’d been receiving stopped. One last blast of magical energy was shot off before Pidge fired at a weak point in the ship and set off a chain of explosions that tore it apart.

Seeing the command ship destroyed, many of the Galra began to surrender. Those that continued to fight were quickly dealt with. It was over. Voltron had won and the universe was free once more. The paladins cheered, but one voice was silent.

“Wait, guys, where’s Lance?” Hunk asked.

Keith’s blood ran ice cold. “Lance? Lance, where are you? Coran, where’s the blue lion?”

“It’s near the planet’s atmosphere, just below you,” the ginger alien answered. His tone was strained when he said the next words, “it doesn’t appear to be moving.”

The red lion dove down through the carnage of the battle, seeking out the familiar blue. The other’s followed but could hardly match Red’s speed. Keith felt relieved when he finally saw the lion a little ways away from the rest of the battle, but it didn’t last long. As Coran had said, it wasn’t moving, but the lights were also out and the armor seemed blackened and crumbled along one side, as if it had been struck with something incredibly powerful.

Keith tried to think back to the chaos of the battle. When had Lance been hit? Did the lion just lose power or was there something wrong with her paladin? “That last blast of magic…” Pidge whispered.

“Let’s get them back to the ship.” Shiro was trying to remain strong for their sake, but Keith could hear the tremor in his voice. The Black lion moved to push the blue one gently, careful to avoid touching the damaged side.

The red lion stayed near them the entire Shiro was bringing them into the Castle. He landed in the hangar with them and sprinted to the blue lion. He pushed past the others and sprinted inside. Lance was slumped in his chair, unconscious. When Keith grew closer, he realized the blue paladin wasn’t breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He isn't dead. You'll hear more in the next chapter


	26. Lance's Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally go home

“Look! Look, there it is!” Hunk cries, pointing at the screen. The Earth had just come into view, just as beautiful and blue as they had left it. Keith and Shiro both glanced at each other nervously, still unsure about how they felt about returning to a planet that had betrayed them in some way. Allura and Coran were excited about finally experiencing the planet they’d heard so much about, but at the same were homesick for the Altea they would never see again.

Pidge stood between her brother and her father, whom they had rescued not long after finding Matt, holding their hands tightly. Lance was next to Keith towards the back and gently reached over to intertwine their fingers, surprising the red paladin.

“You excited?” Lance asked.

Keith shrugged. “I guess.” He sighed at Lance’s confused expression. “There’s not really a whole lot waiting for me there. My family’s in this room.”

The blue paladin cooed and pulled him into his arms. “Cutie.” He pecked Keith’s nose. “But now your family’s going to get a lot bigger, so get ready.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re coming home with me right?”

“I am?”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Of course, you are. Where else would you go? Your shack in the middle of nowhere?”

“Yeah? Aren’t you going to go back to the Garrison though?”

“Pfft, for what? I went to space and did way more exploring than any of them could ever dream of.” Lance sighed, leaning his head against Keith’s. “Voltron doesn’t end when we reach Earth. Everything’s going to be different.”

Keith stayed quiet for a few minutes, watching as the castle began to orbit the planet. Allura and Shiro were working to begin communication with Earth, so they could land without being attacked or arrested. “We’re going to be space diplomats, aren’t we?” The princess had mentioned something like that a few days ago after Lance had finally gotten out of the healing pod and they began to head for home.

“Oh yeah.” The blue paladin grinned. “So you’re going to have to keep that hot head of yours cool.”

“As long as I have you, everything’ll be fine.”

“Keith!” Lance shrieked, squeezing the life out the shorter teen.

~

“Ma!” Lance shouted, flying into the small woman’s arms. There was a small crowd of people waiting for them in the room, mostly Hunk and Lance’s families. A thin, pale woman was standing off to the side, a smile cracking her face when she saw the Holt families. Hunk was being crushed by his father and what Keith guessed was a younger brother, though he was nearly as tall and broad as Hunk. All around him, his friends were reuniting with the people they loved and missed.

But no one had come for him.

A hand rested on his shoulder. “I’m sure your family’s out there somewhere, Keith. We’ll find them.”

“I’m not sure I want to.” Keith smiled up at the brotherly figure he’d been blessed with. “Why would I want to find someone that couldn’t be bothered to stick around when I already have people who care about me here?”

“Aw, Keith, how sweet. I might shed a tear.” Lance pretended to wipe away a tear, his face solemn for a moment before he was grinning. “Come here, Mullet. You have people to meet. Family, this is Keith. He’s angry and has awful hair, but we love him. Keith, meet my family.”

“Uh, hi?” Keith said, awkwardly waving. They were all staring and he wanted to climb into a hole. Or maybe get on Red and fly as far away as he could.

Lance’s mother stepped forward, her blue eyes that resembled Lance’s so much looking him over critically, expression blank. The red paladin had to force himself to not try to straighten his clothes or fix his hair, feeling like that would give him away. After a few tense moments where running away in Red kept looking better, she smiled warmly, pulling him into a hug. “Hello, Keith. Please, call me Maria. It’s wonderful to meet you at last.”

“At last? What do you mean?”

Lance coughed. “Yeah, Mama, what _do_ you mean?”

She fixed him in a stern gaze. “Don’t you go pretending you wouldn’t babble on and on about Keith every time you called home. Honestly, if I didn’t love you so much, I wouldn’t have put up with your pathetic pining.”

Keith covered his mouth as Lance turned bright red, stuttering out protests. The red paladin didn’t have long to enjoy his boyfriend’s embarrassment before he was enveloped in the McClain family, being introduced to what seemed like endless siblings and sibling-in-laws and cousins and every other type of relative that had been available to come see Lance. He was exhausted by the end of it and he couldn’t remember half the names he’d been told, let alone who they belonged to.

There was dinner after that and Keith found himself between Lance and Shiro, who had somehow been adopted into the McClain family as well after learning of his close relationship with Keith. Across the room, Hunk and Pidge and their families were sitting together and even from where he was sitting, Keith could tell they were all deep into some engineering-related discussion.

Lance’s younger siblings and cousins were surrounding the three paladins, bombarding them with questions about space and fighting aliens and flying giant robots. They were all very impressed at Shiro’s metal arm, oohing when he made it glow purple and slicing through a fruit. They all began offering things to be cut and Shiro had to frantically refuse them.

“What’s it like meeting an alien?” one boy, Keith thought his name might’ve been Antonio, asked.

The blue paladin took a sip of his drink before casually saying, “Keith’s part alien.”

There was a burst of excited sounds and then Keith could barely understand the questions that were rapidly fired at him. Lance was chuckling off to the side, watching Keith try to handle the mod of children. The red paladin looked to Shiro for help.

“Do you think I could make toast with this hand?” the black paladin mused aloud. The children’s attention shifted to him and he smirked. “Shall we find some bread and find out?” They cheered and Shiro led them away to a smaller table, small hands grabbing any sort of bread they could find along the way.

Maria chuckled as she walked over and sat down in one of the now vacant chairs. “So tell me, Keith, did my son behave himself in space?”

“I guess. I mean, he talked a lot.” Keith smirked when Lance kicked him under the table. “But he was a really great friend when I needed him and was always there for the team.”

“Yes, Lance has always been the reliable sort of boy. It was hard getting along without him.” She looked at her offspring fondly. “Of course, I could hardly take him anywhere without him flirting with someone. Even when he was little.”

The blue paladin pouted. “Mama,” he whined. “I didn’t flirt with _everyone._ And stop saying embarrassing stuff.”

“I’m your mother, it’s my job.” She continued to smile at them warmly but her gaze turned a little sharper. “So tell me, how long have you two been together?”

Lance gave a nervous chuckle. “Uh, you know that. We sorta met at the Garrison and then we went to space together. C’mon, Ma.”

“Lance,” she said, adding something in rapid Spanish that had Lance spluttering and blushing at an alarming rate. Keith wished he’d bothered to go through with his goal of learning a second language. “Keith, tell me the story of Klance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pidge told Maria the ship name, but she figured out they were dating on her own lol I meant to do more with Lance's family but this ended up being so long as it is and I had no idea what to write anyways. You'll see more of them later.


	27. Back to the Shack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith returns to the shack and Lance goes with him.

Keith ran into the blue lion’s cockpit, going straight to the pilot’s chair. Lance collapsed in it, eyes closed and chest unmoving. He reached out for the Cuban boy, but somehow was just short of being able to touch him no matter how hard he tried. Keith _knew_ that Lance’s body was growing colder, that he needed to get him into a pod before—

“It’s too late,” said a voice that sounded awfully familiar but he couldn’t quite place it. “There’s nothing that can be done for him.”

The red paladin sat up with a gasp, panting heavily and drenched in sweat. The room slowly came into focus: the band and space posters on the wall, the action figures and video games on the bookshelf, the seashells on the window frame. He was in Lance’s room, back on Earth. They were safe. It was all over.

“What’s going on?” Lance mumbled, rolling over. His blue eyes squinted up at Keith, taking in his state. “Did you have another nightmare?”

“Yeah.” Keith took a long gulp from the water bottle on the nightstand before laying back down. Lance threw an arm over his chest and cuddled closer. “It was the same one, about when you were hit by Haggar’s magic.”

Lance hummed. “I’m fine now though. I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere.”

“I know.” Keith rolled over to face his boyfriend. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, you big dope. Now go back to sleep.”

Keith pressed their lips together in a short kiss before he leaned back again. He turned his head to watch Lance for a little while. “Hey, Lance?” The blue paladin hummed to let him know he was listening. “I want to go back to the shack in the desert.”

“Why?” Lance asked, annoyed. “I thought you liked it here?”

“I do. I just want to get some things. I don’t want to stay.”

The tension went away from Lance’s face. “Oh. Okay. We can go today. When it _is_ today. Will you sleep now?”

“Yes, darling.”

~

The red lion set down in a cloud of dust next to the small shack that had been Keith’s home. It looked smaller and shabbier than Keith remembered. _I got used to big, alien ships I guess,_ he thought. Surprisingly the door was still locked and everything inside was exactly the same, except for a thick layer of dust over everything.

“Hey, look at your conspiracy board,” Lance said, laughing as he walked up to it. “I remember thinking you were some kind of nut who hunted ghosts and believed in Mothman or something.”

“Mothman’s real.”

Lance stared at him. “You’re joking, right? I know you’re awful at the whole kidding around tone, but you don’t _actually_ believe Mothman exists.”

“Lance, there’s evidence. I have it all right here.” Keith grabbed a thick binder from the bottom of the bookshelf. The front cover read ‘Mothman Evidence.’

The blue paladin resisted smacking himself. “Why do I even like you?” He looked around the room, taking in the little details he hadn’t been able to last time. “You don’t have any photos.”

Keith looked up from the pages he’d been gazing at. “What? Oh, I do have one. I just don’t keep it out in the open.” He walked over to the bed and reached under the pillow, pulling out a small, battered picture frame. “It’s the only one I have, so I kept it close. I was always worried that someone would take it away if they knew.

Lance accepted it carefully. It was of a man with dark hair and eyes a few shades lighter than Keith’s. He was holding a small toddler, wavy hair covering half his face as the child smiled and waved towards the camera. Keith and his dad when he was young. “You were adorable.”

“I guess.”

“You’re still adorable.” Lance circled his arms around Keith’s waist and kissed his cheek. “My cute space kitty.”

Red spread across Keith’s cheeks. “Shut up.”

“Hey, kitty, let’s have some fun here. Make some good memories in this place.”

“Lance, I came here for a reason.”

“And? That doesn’t mean I can’t blow you.”

“Lance.”

“Later?”

“Later.”

Lance beamed, clapping his hands together once. “Alright, let’s get to work. What do you need me to do?”

“I don’t really need you to do anything.” Keith emptied a box of papers onto his bed and began moving around the room, picking up things and putting them in it. “I just wanted to grab some stuff. I told you.”

He started to reach for the Mothman binder. “You are not taking that.”

“Fight me, Lance.” Keith placed it in the box. “Pidge wanted to see it. She said she’d help me get some really solid proof so people like _you_ can shut up.”

“Nerds,” the taller boy said with a roll of his eyes. “What was it like living out here all alone?”

Keith shrugged. “It wasn’t that bad. I mean, there were times I thought I was going nuts from not interacting with people, but I was always a loner so I was kind of already used to spending a lot of time alone. A couple shirts and pants went into the box, topping it off. “There. That didn’t take too long.”

“That’s it?” It was a fairly small box. “That’s all you’re taking?”

“Well, there isn’t a whole lot that’s actually mine. I don’t exactly own this place.”

“Wait, then who does?” Keith shrugged, heading towards the door. “Keith, Keith were you squatting on someone else’s property for a year? Are you kidding me?”

“Yeah, but no one ever came to kick me out and the place was still the same after all that time in space. Maybe who ever owns the land forgot about it.”

Lance followed him outside. “I can’t believe you were just found a random shack and got away with living in it. Honestly, Keith, what the fuck?”

They were halfway to the lion when Keith stopped. “I forgot something.” He shoved the box into Lance’s hands. “I’ll be right back.” Keith was running back into the shack before Lance could protest.

The blue paladin sighed and continued to the lion, setting the box down inside. Keith came in a few moments later, a little out of breath and not holding anything. “What’d you forget?”

“Ah, nothing important,” Keith said shiftily. He sat down in the pilot’s seat, firing up Red’s engines.

“Keith, you’re a shitty liar. What’d you go and get?”

Keith smirked and Red took off, rocketing straight up. Lance screeched in fear, clinging desperately to Keith’s seat. He forgot to ask Keith about it again for quite a while after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith did not get his blowjob. It's very sad, but completely his own fault. Don't try to kill your bf, Keef


	28. Another Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The paladins attend a gathering of aliens and humans.

“Why do we have to wear these suits?” Keith complained, trying once again to tie his tie properly. “What about the Altean clothes we had? Those were way more comfortable.”

Shiro chuckled as he straightened his clothes behind him. “Because we’re back on Earth and representing the human race. Be glad you’re wearing a suit. Matt told me Pidge is being forced into a dress.”

“At least she doesn’t have to tie one of these stupid things. How the hell…”

“Here, let me.” Shiro turned him around and began messing with the tie. “You know this really isn’t that difficult. You can pilot advanced alien spacecraft, but not do a simple knot?” He smiled. “Lance would have a field day.”

“Which is why this will never be mentioned in front of him.” Keith turned back to the mirror when Shiro let go of him, tugging at the tie. “Are you sure it’s supposed to be this tight? I feel like I’m being choked.”

The black paladin ruffled his hair. “You’ll get used to it.” He fussed with Keith’s collar a bit. “You look good in a suit. Of course, you’d look better if you stopped slouching.”

Keith smacked his hands away. “You sound like a mom getting her son ready for prom or something. Go away.”

“Wow. I tie your tie and this is how you repay me.” Shiro sighed dramatically. “Well, since you hate me so much, I’m going to go see if the car is here. Don’t be too long.”

“Please, you’re going to go apply eyeliner in the hallway mirror,” Keith grumbled. He turned back to the mirror and started fixing his hair so it was neat. A few days prior, he’d finally given in and gotten his ‘mullet’ cut. Lance had nearly fainted when he saw it and they’d vanished for the rest of the day. _Worth it._

Shiro had started renting an apartment near the Garrison, so he was close enough to work as a spokesperson for Earth and a diplomat with the alien races that had begun to contact them. Keith had moved in with him, to Lance’s disappointment, but everyone agreed that the McClain household was pretty crowded. Of course, they still spent nearly every night sleeping next to each other in one place or the other.

The four younger paladin’s futures were still uncertain. Keith had been invited back to the Garrison to continue training, but he nor the others felt inclined to return. They had become the unofficial assistants of Shiro and had been working with Earth scientists to begin duplicating Altean technology and spreading it around the globe as well as educating Earth leaders about the alien races they had encountered. It was kind of boring and many of the adults tended to look down on them until they were reminded that ‘hey these kids fought and almost single handedly won a war against an evil tyrant that had been ruling for ten thousand years.’

Keith looked his reflection up and down. He did look good in the suit. It fit him in all the right ways. _Maybe Lance will like it too,_ he thought, smiling as he headed for the door.

Shiro was already in the car that had been sent to pick them up and sure enough there was a notable difference around Shiro’s eyes. He pretended not to notice and stared out the window the entire ride.

~

“Keith, over here!” Hunk called, waving. He already had a plate of food and was all too happy to shove some in Keith’s mouth as soon as he was in range. “These things are delicious.”

They were delicious, but Keith’s nerves made him feel like he was going to throw up. He swallowed the bite and smiled at the sunny paladin. “Thanks. Have you seen any of the others?”

“Pidge is going to be late because she locked herself in the bathroom and refused to come out, claiming these sorts of parties are dumb and annoying and she had work to do,” Hunk listed. “And Lance is going to be late because he has to be perfect and also that’s just him.”

Keith chuckled. “Well, Pidge isn’t wrong. These parties are kind of annoying.” He tugged at his tie again. “And uncomfortable.”

“Well, don’t you look dashing,” a smooth voice said. A woman Keith vaguely recognized as being on TV approached the two. Her chocolate eyes never left Keith as she casually slid in between the two paladins, edging Hunk out of the way. “I heard that the paladins of Voltron were handsome, but you put the rest to shame.”

The way her tongue flicked over her red lips as she scanned his body up and down had him shivering in disgust. “Um, thanks?”

She stepped closer, leaning forward so her cleavage was even more visible. Her voice was low and close to his ear as she said, “how ‘bout we ditch this party for a bit and have ourselves a little fun somewhere, hmm?”

Keith looked to Hunk for help, having absolutely no idea how to tell this woman that there was a long list of reasons why he had no interest in her, but it turned out that he didn’t have to say anything. An arm settled around his waist and a warm presence appeared at his side. Lance smiled at the woman, but there was no warmth or happiness in it. “Hey, guys. What are we talking about?”

The woman’s face turned into a snarl of dislike for a moment before turning back to that charming smile that looked more fake the longer Keith looked. “The red paladin and I were just having a _private_ discussion. Perhaps we should take it elsewhere?” she offered, looking back at Keith.

“Nah, I’m good here,” Keith said with a shrug. He moved a bit farther into Lance’s hold, leaning against his chest. She got the hint then and with a look of fury turned and stomped away without another word. “That was awful. Thanks for the sa—Oh.”

He’d finally gotten a look at what Lance was wearing, and if a suit looked good on him, then Lance was _born_ to wear them. It was fitted to his frame and showed his broad shoulders and slim waist perfectly in a way that most of his other clothes did not. (A tragedy that Keith was planning to soon correct.) The dress shirt he was wearing was the perfect shade of blue that matched his eyes, making them stand out more. The pants were close fitted as well and, in a way that was very Lance, his shoes were a sparkly blue that matched his shirt.

“Like what you see?”

Keith’s gaze wandered up to Lance’s face, dazed. His mental state only grew worse when he saw Lance had his hair pushed back. _Holy crap, my boyfriend is hot._ “Um, yeah.”

“Good.” Lance smirked. “Maybe you can see more later.”

“Yeah, I’ve been here the entire time and this has been a very awkward experience.” Hunk did indeed seem very uncomfortable. “Lance, try this.” The blue paladin opened his mouth and was fed the same sort of food Keith had been given without questioning it. “Good?”

“I bet you could make better.”

“I was actually thinking that maybe…” He started listing off different spices and foods that would go well with them. Lance nodded along, but Keith wondered if he understood what Hunk was saying anymore than Keith did.

The room was filling up more and more. Calling it a party may not have been the best word. Partying implied dancing and a certain amount of enjoyable chaos (to some people). But the music was kept low and classical, the lights were up all the way, and people mainly stood or sat around talking to each other. Keith almost wished it was more like the party back on Olaer, when he’d danced with Lance.

Lance made his way around the room, talking to nearly everyone, all with Keith at his side. The blue paladin kept most of the conversation going on his own, so Keith didn’t _have_ to speak if he didn’t want to. Pidge joined them for a while, but disappeared when none other than Iverson came up to them.

“It’s good to see you, Kogane,” he greeted, smiling and patting Keith’s shoulder. Lance’s smile faltered for a second before he pushed it back into place. “I had hoped I would be seeing you back in class. The other students could have used a good demonstration for a first-class pilot such as yourself.”

“I’ve given a few talks about what it was like to fly during combat,” Lance interjected. “I would have gladly given a demonstration if—“

“Yes, yes, McClain. We had plenty of demonstration from you in the simulator.” Iverson brushed him off like he was an annoying child. “Having to fly a ship that was so different and more advanced than our own must’ve been difficult, but you certainly managed, huh, Keith?”

Keith never thought he could dislike two people so much in one night. “Yeah, Lance was actually the first one to fly a Lion actually. Watching what he was doing gave a huge advantage when I finally got mine.” He spotted a bunch of white hair over Iverson’s shoulder. “If you could excuse us, we were just going to talk to the princess.” He grabbed Lance’s arm and speed-walked away. “What a dick.”

“Tell me about it.” Lance’s joking voice was half-hearted and the Cuban boy sounded exhausted.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m great.” Lance could barely move his mouth into a smile. “You mind if we take a break? Step outside for a bit? I need some air.”

The red paladin nodded and led the way to the small garden area outside. Within the tangle of plants and lights, they found a bench hidden away in a little alcove. The sounds of the party were faint and the moon was shining down brightly on them. The silver light highlighted the curves in Lance’s face and made him look even more beautiful. Keith didn’t understand how that was possible.

“I can’t believe I went to space, did a whole bunch of awesome stuff, and Iverson still can’t see me as anything other than a fuck-up trying to fill in Keith Kogane’s shoes.”

“Pretty sure you would’ve overfilled them. My feet are tiny,” Keith joked, drawing out a chuckle from the other. “Who needs his approval anyways? You are amazing at a lot of stuff. You can shoot the tiniest stuff from ages away and I struggle to even fire a gun. You’re way smarter when it comes to making plans and stuff. You looked after our well-being and made sure we were all somewhat okay. You’re charismatic and brave and stupidly good-looking.”

“I have the best boyfriend in the universe,” Lance offered. “No one else can claim that. I even looked.”

Keith blushed, smacking his shoulder. “Hey, I’m trying to compliment you. Don’t turn this around.”

“Keith, I appreciate what you’re doing, but it’s fine, really.” Lance sighed, leaning back on the bench. “I guess I was just hoping that maybe Iverson would change how he acted towards me, and when he did that, I got a little overwhelmed. But he wasn’t the one who helped save the universe, so he can suck it for all I care.”

“Good.” Keith laced their fingers together. “But if he does that again, to you or any of the others, I’m going to punch him.”

“I should say that’s a bad idea, but I respect and support your decisions.” Lance smiled. “Especially that one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said aliens and humans, but there was literally only a mention of Allura. There were in fact alien people there, I just didn't involve them. This ended up being long and taking forever to write, but I hope you like it. There will be a somewhat longer time gap between this chapter and the next one because they're meant to be 'life after voltron' just so you are aware.


	29. Moving On and Moving In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance move in together.

Shiro set down a box on the floor, wiping away the sweat that had collected on his forehead. “Okay, I think that’s the last one.”

“Thanks, dude,” Lance said from where he was sitting, a box between his legs and piles of things spread out around him. “I would offer you a cold drink, but Hunk is still installing the fridge.”

“If you’d let me work on it a bit, I could make it way more efficient!” came a shout from the kitchen. “But _no,_ that’d void the warranty.”

Keith chuckled from where he was assembling the book case. “We could just let him do it. It’s not like he’d actually wreck it.”

“No, Keith.”

“Why do you hate me, Lance?” Hunk whined.

“I could always not let you set up the media system!” Lance shot back. There was muffled grumbling, but no real response. The blue paladin beamed at his victory. “Hey, Shiro, could you help Keith with the book shelf? He seems to be struggling.”

His boyfriend glared at him. “I am not struggling,” he snapped, trying to force two pieces together. “It’s just badly made.”

The older man walked over and peered at the instructions Keith had discarded almost immediately. “Uh, Keith that part’s supposed to go with this one.” He took it from Keith’s hand and easily snapped the pieces together. “See?”

“Shut up.” Keith pouted, ignoring Lance’s smirk.

It had been two years since they’d returned to Earth. Keith was now an official piloting instructor at the Garrison, which had expanded to include many alien students as well while humans had begun to attend alien schools. Lance was on the team that settled alien matters on Earth and made rules and regulations involving Earth’s space-decisions, alongside Allura, Coran, and Shiro. Hunk helped occasionally, but mainly worked on repairing space craft, something he loved endlessly. Pidge was off planet half the time, collecting information with Matt to further expand Earth’s knowledge of alien technology. They had already published a book together.

It was surreal at times. Lance kept expecting to wake up back at the Garrison and that everything had been a dream.

There was little need for Voltron anymore, but the lions still remained nearby, ready to go at any time. Or in Pidge’s case, most of the time, as that was her preferred way to travel. Lance often visited Blue, if only just to share what he had been up to and give her some attention. If Keith happened to have time off when he did, they would go for a race around the solar system or some other reckless thing that they would later be scolded for.

As he watched Shiro assist an annoyed Keith build the bookshelf, he wondered how incredibly different life would have been if he hadn’t gone charging in after Keith the day Shiro crashed on Earth. The mullet was gone, but he could still recognize that boy anywhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant for this to be longer, but it just ended so nicely? Idk my dudes. One more chapter though, get ready. There's gonna be smut.


	30. The Beginning of the Rest of their Lives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter as Keith and Lance have settled back on Earth and into their new home.

“Six months and we have finally finished unpacking,” Lance announced, collapsing a cardboard box. He shot a look at Keith where he was lounging on the couch. “Well, _I’ve_ finished unpacking.”

“Thanks, babe,” Keith said, shoving another handful of popcorn in his mouth, looking incredibly attractive.

“And they say romance is dead.” Lance tossed the box aside and crawled over Keith, laying on his chest. He pushed aside the purple stone hanging from Keith’s neck. “How long does it take for it to go back to blue?” he asked curiously.

Keith shrugged. “I’m not sure. It’s still mostly purple when I come home, so more than ten hours, I guess. You could probably tell better with the red one.”

“I don’t think it’s been red from months.”

“Good.”

Lance looked up at Keith’s smug smirk. “Maybe it really isn’t dead.”

“Want to go to the bedroom and find out?”

The taller man groaned, hitting him with a throw pillow. “Awful. I’m disgusted. Romance is a rotting corpse and it’s your fault.”

Keith laughed, grabbing another pillow and hitting Lance with it. “You’re one to talk, Mr. Let’s have sex everywhere!”

“I do not say that!” Lance abandoned the pillow and began to tickle Keith’s sides, making him writhe underneath him. “You literally just propositioned me, but _I’m_ the sex addict?”

He was struggling to breathe properly, but Keith still managed to choke out a ‘yes!’ He shoved Lance off him, wrestling his boyfriend until he had him pinned to the floor. “You’re a little shit. Why do I love you?”

“I ask myself that too.” Lance turned his head to kiss Keith’s wrist where it was holding his hand down. He looked up at Keith from the corner of his eye, smirking. “But then I just have to look at you and it all comes flooding back.”

Keith’s face was bright red in an instant. “You fucking dumbass,” Keith grumbled, sitting up and letting him go in favor of crossing his arms. “You’re not as smooth as you think.”

Lance rolled his eyes, also sitting. “Oh, kitten, I’m just as smooth as I think. And I know exactly how to handle you.” He ran a finger down the side of Keith’s neck and back to follow the curve of Keith’s spine partway down his back. Keith shivered at the touch. “You know, the bed room is kinda far away. Let’s find out if romance is dead right here.”

“Good idea, Mr. Let’s have sex everywhere.”

“Fine then.” Before Keith could understand what was happening, Lance was scooping him up in his arms and heading to the bedroom. “Don’t act like you don’t enjoy having sex just about anywhere either though. ‘Cause I distinctly remember that time in the kitchen where you begged me to-“

“Shut up, Lance,” Keith grumbled, turning red. He bit down on the junction between Lance’s neck and his shoulder hard enough to leave a mark. “You talk too much.”

The bedroom door was kicked open and Lance dropped his boyfriend onto the bed. “Why are you so bitey?” he whined, touching the place where Keith had bitten. “My perfect complexion is suffering.”

Keith practically tore his shirt off, revealing a myriad of scratches, bite marks, and hickeys covering his chest. “Are you kidding?”

“Yeah, but this is on my _neck._ I make sure that you can at least cover yours.”

“Well, I can’t take my shirt off anywhere that someone will see me and it’s inconvenient.”

Lance crawled onto the bed to straddle Keith’s waist. “All the more reason to not show off your body to other people,” he said with a smirk. He smothered Keith’s retort with a heated kiss, pressing him down into the mattress. Before long, they were both down to their underwear, grinding against each other as they made out.

“Fuck, Lance,” Keith groaned when the Cuban man moved off to the side to lick and nip at his ear. “Get the lube.”

He lifted himself off Keith’s body, playful grin on his face. “Pushy pushy. Why’re you in such a rush, kitten? Got something urgent on your mind?” Lance trailed a finger over the outline of Keith’s hard cock teasingly.

Keith grunted as he tried to push back a moan, hands clenching around the sheets. “Fuck off.”

“I think you mean ‘fuck me.’ You really are out of it aren’t you? Or should I say into it?” Keith was debating kicking Lance off the bed, but he was reaching for the lube, so he thought he’d forgive him for _now._ “Alright, baby, let’s get you naked.”

“There’s no one here and I’m still embarrassed of you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Shut up.” Lance began pulling at Keith’s underwear and the other obediently lifted his hips to let them slide off. After being together for so long, he no longer felt the need to hide himself as Lance’s heated gaze swept up his body; On the contrary, it sent a wave of heat flooding through him.

Lance spread a generous amount of lube on his fingers and settled between Keith’s spread legs. “Let me know if it hurts, ‘kay?” He teased around the rim of Keith’s entrance before gently sliding one in. It was almost stupid how careful he was, even knowing that Keith could handle it a little harder and a little faster, that he even _liked_ it rough. Lance wasn’t afraid of pushing Keith during sex, but never once did he even consider anything that could hurt Keith when he was stretching him.

“You can add another one,” Keith huffed after a few seconds. “It’s not like we haven’t done it for a while.”

“Don’t rush me.”

“Lance, hurry the fuck up.”

The blue paladin glared up at him and was met by an equally harsh glare. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“My dick hurts right now. I can take another one. I’m not made of glass, Lance.”

Lance frowned, but did as Keith ordered. “I just don’t want to cause you pain.”

“I know, babe.” Keith let out a little surprised sound. “Shit. Little higher.” Lance moved his fingers farther in and pressed against the side, drawing out a satisfied moan. “Holy shit.”

He kept up the stimulation to Keith’s prostate, careful not to put too much pressure too often in case it was too much. By the time he had three fingers in Keith, the other man was a panting mess. His face and chest were red and his hair was practically plastered to his face. “You ready, kitty?”

“Fuck—yes, Lance. Shit. Please.” Keith whimpered when Lance pulled out his fingers, hole twitching as it attempted to clench around nothing. His dark eyes watched his boyfriend pull off his own underwear, releasing his hard dick. When Lance started to reach for a condom, Keith tugged his hand away. “Maybe, maybe you couldn’t this time?”

It was very rare for them to not use one when they were going all the way. Even when they were in space, Lance had taken the time to hunt down the alien version after the first time they’d had sex. It was safer, Keith knew, and it definitely made cleaning up a lot easier, but he just needed to _feel_ Lance tonight.

“For you, babe, anything.” Lance gave a cheeky wink to go along with the line before he returned to the activity at hand (at dick?). He guided himself in, watching Keith’s breath catch in his chest before slowly flowing out in one long breath as he pushed in. “You good, babe?”

“So good,” Keith murmured. His eyes were closed and already his face looked like he was experiencing pure bliss.

 _The power of my dick,_ Lance thought to himself proudly. He started to move said dick, slowly at first, but he picked up the pace when Keith relaxed around him. Keith’s legs were wrapped around his waist, heels digging into his back painfully. Lance grabbed one and pulled it up to rest on a shoulder. The difference in the angle allowed him to go deeper and from the sounds that were pouring out of Keith, it was appreciated.

“Fuck, Keith, kitten, you feel so good,” Lance grunted. “So warm and tight.” He pushed in harder, feeling the coil in his stomach already starting to tighten. Keith could barely keep his eyes open or stop moaning, a sure sign that he was close to the edge. “You gonna come from my cock up your ass, kitty?”

Keith’s hips jerked up, a twisted expression crossing Keith’s face. “Shut up.”

“You almost came, didn’t you?” Lance asked. Keith didn’t answer, but Lance _knew._ He smirked, moving harder and deeper and faster, doing all he could to finish Keith off. The hand that wasn’t steadying Keith’s leg on his shoulder went down to the leaking red dick laying on Keith’s stomach and began to stroke it.

From there it was a only a matter of time before Keith lost the battle to hold off his orgasm. Minutes later, Keith arched off the bed, a scream of Lance’s name ripping from his throat as he came hard over his stomach. The tightness of Keith orgasming around him sent Lance off as well and he buried himself as deep into his lover as he could as he came.

Panting, sweaty, but satisfied, Lance pulled out and flopped onto the bed beside Keith. His eyes fought to stay closed as he gazed at his boyfriend, finding that there really wasn’t anything quite as beautiful as Keith after sex. Not that Keith agreed when he said that, claiming that he looked gross and uncomfortable.  

“Mmm, that was good,” Lance said. Keith grunted, but didn’t move. “I guess romance might not be that dead after all.”

Keith would have rolled his eyes if they were open. He was trying to fight off sleep, but it was so hard and he could feel himself drifting off… _No, stay awake. We still have to do that thing._

He forced his eyes open to watch as Lance picked up the stone laying on the pillow next to him, the chain not allowing it to move far from him. The color was still a deep violet, which hardly surprised Keith. It was as beautiful as when it was blue, maybe a touch more so, since it meant Lance was close and everything was more beautiful with Lance around. Even Lance.

“Having fun?”

“Always.” Lance pulled his own stone up to compare them side by side. “Weird. The patterns on them are even the same. The little swirls and such. They didn’t used to be.”

Keith looked closer and sure enough the pattern of the color had changed so the two stones matched in every way. “Maybe it means we’re at the next level of our relationship.”

“You going to ask me to marry you then?” Lance asked, laughing. He let the stones fall and flopped onto his back. “Ah, we need to get cleaned up, but I don’t want to move.”

The red paladin was still stuck on the words ‘ask me to marry you.’ _Now’s the time, Kogane._ Before he could back out, he dug around in the back of his nightstand, pulling out the small velvet bag he’d taken from the shack in the desert two and half years prior. Tugging it open, he let the band of gold fall into his hand before turning back to Lance.

The other was watching him curiously, but also like he was half asleep. “What’cha up to, Keithy boy?”

 _Shit I can’t get down on one knee. Hell, I’m not even dressed. This is fuckin’ mess. Maybe I should—no, I already got it out and I’ve put it off for too long._ “Lance McClain,” Keith said, voice cracking. He cleared his throat as Lance chuckled, seeming a little more awake. “Will you marry me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit. Whatever will Lance say? Guess we'll never find out.
> 
> Okay, first off, I am super sorry that this took so long? I wasn't feeling well and then I just couldn't make myself sit down and write it? And then I end with a cliffhanger, lol. (not actually sorry for that) 
> 
> Second, I'd like to thank everyone who read this, especially those who left a comment saying how much they enjoyed it. They really mean a lot to me and I love you all. 
> 
> Third, I would be open to writing some short side stories about things that didn't make it into the thirty chapters if anyone wants to leave a prompt or something of the like in the comments. It'd just be a separate 'bonus stories' fic type deal. But I have nothing planned, so unless someone is interested, it probs won't happen. 
> 
> Bye and thanks for reading~~


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